Bowling Green baseball (10-8, 8-0 MAC) secured their spot in the record books on Saturday afternoon, beating the Akron Zips (5-16, 1-6 MAC) 11-6 to give the Falcons an 8-0 record in Mid-American Conference (MAC) play, their best start in program history.
Despite being down 6-4 with only two innings left to play at Steller Field, the Falcons rallied back with six hits and two walks in a seven run eighth inning to calm the nerves of Falcon fans in attendance and keep the streak alive.
“It’s a special moment for our players, we talk a lot about the tradition of past teams, of championship teams, of great players that have worn our colors and when opportunity presents itself to become part of history you want to seize that moment,” BGSU head coach Kyle Hallock said postgame. “For about two hours and 15 minutes, it looked like we were gonna put ourselves next to history and we put ourselves in the history books.”
BGSU starting pitcher Nic Good set the tone early with a fast first inning, knocking the Zips down in order despite giving up a leadoff single, as Akron leadoff hitter Evan Bottone was thrown out attempting to turn his single into a double.
Akron starting pitcher Anthony Fett would match Good’s success in the bottom half of the first, allowing only an infield single to designated hitter DJ Newman.
Bowling Green would strike first in the bottom of the second with the fourth homer of the year by right fielder Jack Krause that soared over the trees beyond the right field fence, putting the Falcons up 1-0.
The Zips would tie the game up in the following inning after a grounder by Bottone avoided second baseman Tyler Ross, allowing a run to score from third.
Newman would give the Falcons the lead back in the bottom half of the inning courtesy of a two-run home run that carried over the center field fence, taking the score to 3-1 in favor of BGSU.
The next at bat would feature Ross’ second triple of the year, leading to Krause driving in the run two batters later and bringing the lead to 4-1 early on.
Akron’s Fett would be replaced by relief pitcher Jack Kelley following the conclusion of the bottom of the fourth after allowing four earned runs on six hits in only 57 pitches.
The Zips got to Good in the top of the fifth, scoring two runs off four straight singles, ending with an infield single that scored two and brought the Bowling Green lead to only one.
BGSU relief pitcher Peyton Wilson came in for Good to start off the sixth inning, after Good pitched five innings of three run ball while striking out four in yet another solid outing by the lefty.
Wilson fought with command issues, walking the first two batters he faced and allowing an RBI single to Akron third baseman Henry Hayman that put the Zips up 5-4.
Akron would tack on one more in the following inning after relief pitcher Logan Bell would give up a single to right field to give the Zips a two-run lead.
The Falcons weren’t ready to go away however, loading the bases in the eighth with a leadoff double followed by a single and two walks, scoring a run to make it a 6-5 ballgame.
Ganun, one of the many red hots bats for the Falcons would step in with a chance to break the game wide open.
Ganun sent a 3-2 pitch flying over the fence in right center field, hitting his fourth home run of the season and giving the Falcons a 9-6 lead in the eighth, much to the pleasure of the cold Steller field crowd.
BGSU would tack on two more in the inning from a triple by Newman and a single by Ross, giving them an 11-6 lead, as the possibility of history gleamed in the eyes of the Falcons.
Relief pitcher Jacob Turner would come in to close out the game in the ninth, throwing a quick 13-pitch inning to get the Zips out in order and secure Bowling Green’s 8th straight Mid-American Conference (MAC) win for the first time in program history.
“The sign of a team that is hopefully graduating from being hot to being a good team, which is what we are looking to do, is winning in different ways,” Hallock said. “It’s starting to look and feel like there is some magic in this dugout and I’m really excited for our players.”
The Falcons will look to improve their conference win streak to nine games and earn the series sweep on Sunday, March 24, as they take on Akron for the last of a three-game set at 1 p.m.
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