It was a sunny day at the First Merchants Ballpark Complex, but the road team poured on the runs as the Bowling Green State Falcons (7-8, 5-0 Mid-American Conference) put on a four-hour drubbing of the Ball State Cardinals (11-8, 1-4 MAC) by a score of 34-8. The win continues the best start to conference play in five years for the orange and brown.
To start, sophomore Sam Seidel hit a home run to give the Falcons a 1-0 lead at the end of the first. DJ Newman tacked on a hit as well but would be caught in a double play to end the inning.
BGSU starting pitcher Nic Good ended the first inning with zero hits and a walk. He would pitch until the top of the fifth, finishing with seven earned runs and eight hits.
The final score may say differently, but these teams would go back and forth through the first few innings. After a two-run homer from Nathan Archer, the score was knotted up at seven apiece at the end of the fourth.
Unfortunately for the Cardinals, BGSU would find their rhythm the rest of the way. Ball State would only muster one more run to end the game while the Falcons scored, well, many more.
The pitching was abysmal for the home team, as BGSU took advantage of Ball State being unable to close innings. The Cardinals would end up using the same number of pitchers as they had runs on the day (eight).
The sixth inning perfectly described the type of day the Ball State pitching squad had, where five Falcon runs were scored off walks and the bases were loaded for the entire inning. Jack Krause added two more RBIs to bring the score to 17-7 at the end of the inning.
After a scoreless seventh, Bowling Green continued to add to their run total, as it began to resemble a football score. Junior Caden Parker had an RBI to bring the score to 31-8 at the end of the eighth inning.
The ninth inning saw the orange and brown only score three runs, including a two-run single from Cooper McKenzie. Ball State finally was able to take the Falcon hitters off the field for good with a ground out but was not able to add to their score in the final inning.
BGSU will look to stay on their hot streak, while Ball State will look to erase this game from their memory as these two close their series on March 17 at 1 p.m.
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