By Daniel Gedney
sports reporter
The Bowling Green State University baseball team may have avoided the blizzard that pelted northwest Ohio Saturday evening. However, mother nature had something else waiting for them in Knoxville, Tenn.
Rain. Lots of rain.
The torrential downpour washed out Friday and Saturday’s games, forcing the Falcons to delay their season opener against the University of Tennessee until Sunday afternoon.
When the skies finally cleared, the Falcons opened the 2003 season by dropping a doubleheader to the 26th ranked Volunteers, 8-2 and 5-2. First basemen Kelly Hunt was happy to get the season underway despite the losses.
“We took a couple of losses, but it was nice to finally get outside and play,” Hunt said.
The Falcons struck first in the opening game, thanks to outfielder Nolan Reimold’s two-run homer to left field with two outs in the sixth inning. Reimold’s homer was the first of his collegiate career and came in only his second official at-bat.
The Falcons held onto their 2-0 lead until the bottom of the eighth inning, when the Vols scored eight runs on seven hits off of Burke Badenhop and Doug Flere to go ahead 8-2. The Vols rally was aided by two Falcon errors. Badenhop took the loss for the Falcons. Falcons starting pitcher Kyle Knoblauch faced the minimum number of batters in his five innings of work, allowing no runs on three hits and striking out one.
The Falcons were out-hit in the game 12-5. Getting hits for the Falcons were Reimold, Hunt, Jeff Warnock, Kevin Longstreth and Josh Baughmann. Both teams left six runners on base.
Left-hander Neil Schmitz started the nightcap for the Falcons. In four innings of work, Schmitz allowed two runs on three hits and struck out one. Schmitz was relieved by Tom Oestrike, who allowed only one run on three hits in two innings. Unfortunately for Oestrike, that one run was the go ahead run and made him the losing pitcher.
The Vols opened the scoring with single tallies in the second and fourth innings. The Falcons answered with runs of their own in the fifth and sixth innings to tie the score at two. The Vols broke the tie with a run in the seventh and added two more in the eighth inning to round out the scoring. The Vols final two runs came off of Matt Hundley.
The Falcons collected seven hits in the nightcap. Six of these hits came from three players; Tyler Wasserman (2-for-2), Spencer Schmitz (2-for-3) and Hunt (2-for-4). Longstreth was responsible for the Falcons seventh hit, a double, one of two Falcon extra base hits in the game. Schmitz also hit a double for the Falcons.
The Falcons used a total of eight pitchers in Sunday’s doubleheader. These eight pitchers combined to walk four batters and strike out three.
Next up for the Falcons is a trip to Dayton to take on the University of Dayton this weekend. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Saturday, when the Falcons will play another doubleheader, and 1 p.m. on Sunday.
