Bowling Green baseball (2-6) had another tough game in the Volunteer State Saturday evening, losing 12-1 to the eighth-ranked Tennessee Volunteers (10-1) in seven innings.
Preseason All-American and Golden Spikes Award contender Drew Beam was starting on the mound for the Volunteers, proving that offensive production wasn’t going to get any easier in game two of the series, after the Falcons tallied only one hit in Friday’s 11-1 loss to Tennessee.
Falcon designated hitter DJ Newman started the game off with a bang, hitting a line drive home run into right-center field in the first at-bat of the evening, putting the Falcons up 1-0.
BGSU starting pitcher Nic Good had a shaky start to the game, giving up back-to-back home runs to infielders Christian Moore and Blake Burke, followed by a double down the left field line one batter later.
Good would settle in however, striking out the next three batters to get the Falcons out of the inning down by only one run.
Tennessee third baseman Billy Amick hit his third home run of the weekend in the bottom of the third over the right field fence, scoring two to put the Volunteers ahead 4-1.
The Falcons had an opportunity to start off the fifth inning with a single and a walk that put runners on first and second with nobody out, but a 5-4-3 double play followed by a strikeout by Newman got Beam out of the jam.
Good’s outing ended after four innings of solid work, striking out eight Volunteers despite his four earned runs and seven hits.
Home runs from Tennessee’s top hitters were Good’s downfall, but he did well to contain the bottom half of the lineup and limit the damage to only four runs in his outing.
Sophomore pitcher Perry Miller replaced Good in the fifth inning, giving up one run on an RBI double from Tennessee catcher Cannon Peebles.
Miller gave up a walk and a hit batter after the double to load the bases for the Volunteers, but he shut the door with a strike out that left Tennessee with only one in the inning and a 5-1 lead.
In the top of the sixth inning, Tennessee’s Burke crushed his second home run of the night into the stars over right field that put the Volunteers up 6-1.
The unrelenting Tennessee offense continued to bother BGSU reliever Jacob Turner later in the inning, loading the bases up with a walk, an infield error and a hit batter before Dylan Dreiling came off the bench to hit a bloop single into shallow left field that scored two.
Next up in the Volunteer batting order, designated hitter Dalton Bargo sent a line drive down the right field line that would score two more runs, bringing the Tennessee lead to 10-1 in the bottom of the sixth.
The bad luck would continue in the inning for the new Falcon relief pitcher Peyton Wilson, who would first give up a run on a wild pitch, then a double that would bounce off the third base bag into left field and score another run, giving the Vols a 12-1 lead.
Beam settled in for Tennessee after the first inning home run, striking out nine and allowing only one earned run on five hits and 80 pitches through six innings of work.
Bowling Green would go down in order in the top of the seventh, giving the Volunteers their second win on the run rule in two games against the Falcons, this time with a final score of 12-1.
BGSU falls to 2-6 with this loss, slotting them into ninth in the Mid-American Conference standings.
Sunday’s 2 p.m. matchup against the Volunteers marks the final game of the series and the last of nine games that the Falcons played in Tennessee over three weeks.
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