It took the Falcons three big innings to seal a victory over Toledo Sunday afternoon. The Falcons baseball team concluded their weekend series against UT, defeating the host Rockets in comfortable fashion, 15-5 at Scott Park.
BGSU recorded a six-run third inning, added on by consecutive four-run innings in the sixth and seventh to give them a cushioning lead heading into the final innings of the game.
“I thought we played at an outstanding level the whole game,” said BG head coach Danny Schmitz. “It was a big win and kept our playoff hopes alive.”
Falcons’ sluggers, second baseman Eric Lawson and third baseman Tyler Wasserman, had key performances in the win.
Lawson went 4-5, scoring four runs and driving in three, and Wasserman went 3-4, scoring and driving in two.
Freshman starter Alan Brech carried the Falcons through seven innings, allowing just one run on five hits, with five strikeouts.
Brech pitched four shutout innings before giving up the first Rocket run in the fifth.
“(Brech) did a great job of getting players behind in the count,” Schmitz said. “The offense came out and gave a nice, comfortable lead for him to work with.”
The Falcons were able to take advantage of three UT errors in the game. BGSU scored four runs off two hits in the sixth inning, following an error by UT right fielder Jarrod Resendez. Another error by the Rockets helped rally the Falcons to four more runs in the seventh.
The Rockets homered twice in the final two innings and added four runs, but it was too little too late as BGSU advanced to victory, improving to 26-17 for the season (11-10 in the MAC). UT falls to 19-31 (8-13 MAC).
The Falcons were defeated in a 19-8 loss on Friday’s match-up, and again on Saturday, 10-8, despite jumping out to early leads in both games. They are home today against the Rockets at 3 p.m. in Warren Stellar Field.
BG needs to sweep this weekend’s home series against Western Michigan to reach the playoffs. Coach Schmitz is hoping to get some of the recent Falcon luck to help his team.
“Maybe we can get a little bit of the softball team’s (MAC champions) magic to rub off on us,” he said.
