Bowling Green baseball’s (33-19, 24-6 MAC) five-game winning streak heading into the eighth game of the Mid-American Conference (MAC) tournament was quickly snapped by the Western Michigan Broncos (31-21, 19-11 MAC) in a lopsided contest on Friday, 11-0.
Pitching for the Falcons found itself in hot water early, as BGSU was forced to swap between five different pitchers in the MAC tournament semifinal. Junior right-hander Landon Willeman and sophomore right-hander Kade Arn combined for a total of nine hits, five walks and three strikeouts, resulting in eight runs.
The offensive side of the ball also struggled to get going for Bowling Green, as the Orange and Brown were out-hit 13-3, with only three Falcons recording a hit against the Broncos.
Nothing could seemingly go right for BGSU, who suffered some crucial injuries and missteps during the game that would lead to thirteen different batters coming to the plate for the top-seed Falcons.
Four different BG batters were switched out for pinch hitters; however, this did not do much to kickstart the offense as every single pinch hitter failed to record a hit.
Despite the tough loss, the Orange and Brown’s historic offense is ranked as the sixth best in all of college baseball, giving them hope as they head into their first elimination game of the tournament.
Bowling Green will face off against Ball State on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. in what is a rematch of the second regular season MAC series the Falcons played, where they managed to tack 34 runs on the Cardinals on March 16th.
If the Falcons manage to win game nine of the MAC tournament, they will need two wins against Western Michigan to capture their first MAC tournament title since 2013.
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