BGSU Baseball met the Northern Illinois Huskies for their final home series of the season.

On Friday, BG made a huge statement, scoring 21 runs en route to a 21-1 beatdown of the Huskies. The 21 runs were engineered starting in the third inning, where Bowling Green managed to put eleven runs on the board.

The Brown and Orange added 23 hits to the scoresheet and each starter had at least one hit during the game. Senior Tyler Ross led the charge, going 4-4 and earning four RBIs. Sophomore Gavin Ganun and senior Adam Fallon each had a home run versus the Huskies as well.  

Bowling Green impressively held NIU at zero runs until the sixth inning, where Aaron Harper was able to hit a solo home run.  

Pleased with the team’s offensive performance, head coach Kyle Hallock spoke about what the game meant for the rest of the series, 

 “It was a great offensive day. We set the tone early in the first three innings with a lot of quality at bats. Gage Shenk was really good at the beginning of the game, and we took control early which we were hoping to do each game of the series. It was a great way to start the weekend, but tomorrow is a new day and we must come back ready to go.”

On Saturday, the Falcons struggled in the early going. Northern Illinois got after BGSU starting pitcher Rigo Ramos for a run in each of the first three innings, taking a 3-0 lead after three frames. 

The Falcons got two on base with one out in the fourth inning with a Tyler Ross single, and then a walk by Nathan Archer. However, a flyout and a caught stealing would end the Falcon threat. In the fifth inning, following a two out double, Ramos was replaced by Landon Willeman, who after allowing a single, stranded runners on the corners with a flyout to left fielder Adam Fallon to end the inning. 

No action would occur on either side of the scoreboard until the bottom of the seventh inning. Archer walked to lead off the inning. With one out, Fallon walked, followed by another walk from Mason Montgomery to load the bases and lead to a NIU pitching change.

Jack Krause stepped to the plate, and down 0-2 in the count, whacked a triple to the right field corner that would clear the bases, scoring all three runners, and putting the go-ahead run in the form of a fired-up Krause just 90 feet away. The next batter, Justin Fugitt, hit a sharp ground ball that NIU managed to keep on the infield, but Krause trotted home easily and BGSU took a 4-3 lead. 

In the ninth inning, a one-out base hit by the Huskies plated a run and tied the game up. Any further damage was avoided, and after a quiet bottom of the ninth inning, the game went into extras. 

With runners on the corners and two outs in the top of the 10th, Northern Illinois’s Andre Demetral hit a long fly ball to deep right-center field that looked destined for extra bases. However, Krause made his second huge play of the day, somehow running the ball down and took away potentially two Husky runs and keeping the score tied. 

In the bottom of the tenth, BG got to work. Fugitt led off with a double, followed by a base hit by Sam Siedel and then an intentional walk to Kyle Gurney to load the bases with none out. Then, Ross stepped in and was hit by a 2-0 pitch, forcing in Fugitt from third and giving BGSU the 5-4 victory. The win went to DJ Newman for the orange and brown. 

In the series finale Sunday, the Falcons again got into a big hole early, allowing two runs in the first and then three more in the second, before Jack Krause hit a sacrifice fly to trim the deficit to four after two innings. 

There was not much more activity on the scoreboard until the sixth inning, where again BGSU loaded up the bases, and again Krause came to the plate. The senior delivered, smacking another triple to the right field corner, scoring all three runners on base and clearing the bases to trim the deficit to just one single run. He was stranded at third to end the inning, and after six innings the score stood at 5-4. 

In the eighth, Northern Illinois added an insurance run that would prove big later on from a base knock to left field. The Huskies jumped around a bases-loaded jam with a pair of punchouts to end the bottom of the inning, keeping the score 6-4. 

In the bottom of the ninth, down to their final out, BGSU’s Nathan Rose would walk, which was followed up by a screaming triple to right-center field by Fallon, his second triple of the day, scoring Rose and making the score 6-5. Fugitt then came off the bench to pinch-hit for Montgomery, and on a 1-1 pitch ripped a liner to the right side, but right at the NIU first baseman for a tough-luck out and ended the game with a 6-5 final. Jacob Turner took the loss for the Falcons. 

The orange and brown will finish up their season later this week with a three-game series against Toledo. The Thursday and Saturday games will be at UT’s Scott Park, while the Friday game is being hosted at Fifth Third Field.

For more information, visit bgsufalcons.com.