Earlier today, BGSU baseball (23-10, 12-5) defeated the Western Michigan Broncos (9-22, 5-9) 3-1. The Falcons have now won three of their last four.
Senior Connar Penrod recorded his ninth save of the season, a new program record for a single season. To add to that, the Wauseon, Ohio native now is tied for seventh all-time in BGSU history for career saves with 10.
Junior Joey Wizceb started the game for the Broncos and breezed through the first inning in 14 pitches.
For BG, Carrson Sova was assigned the starting pitcher role for the day. The freshman kept the game scoreless and stuck out two to send the game to the second.
The second inning started with a senior Gavin Gunun double on the first pitch. This was followed by a six-pitch Carter Mottice walk bringing Zack Horky to the plate. The catcher laced the third pitch he saw into left field to score Gunun to make it 1-0 and extend his hitting streak to four games. Mottice also advanced to third on the play.
Next, redshirt freshman Alex Laird hit a sacrifice fly to score Mottice and advance Horky to third. The Falcons were not done scoring yet, because on the very next pitch, senior Gunner Antillon batted in his eighth run of the season by hitting a sac fly to right to stretch the BGSU lead to 3-0. After that, Wizceb was able to stop the bleeding and send the game to the bottom of the second.
Despite Sova surrendering an Avery Thielman double, he was able to pitch his way out of trouble to keep the momentum on the Falcon’s side.
The third inning was very quiet for both teams. Garrett Wright singled and swiped a base in the top of the frame and Grady Mee reached base due to an error in the bottom of the inning, but neither were able to score.
Throughout the fourth and fifth innings, both teams’ starters continued to dominate and were unfazed by baserunners early in the innings.
It wasn’t until the bottom of the sixth that Sova started running into trouble. Redshirt junior Lucas Rick belted a line drive single into left field, sparking the Broncos. Following that, outfielder Dylan Nevar drew a walk to put runners on first and second. After a two-out walk to load the bases, BG manager, Kyle Hallock elected to go to his bullpen and bring in Ty Roder. The Wright State transfer sat down Brendan Harrity to end the inning.
In the seventh, Billy Gernon decided to dig into his bullpen and sub in sophomore Zach Vriesenga in relief for Wizceb. Vriesenga worked around a two-out single and kept the Bronco deficit at three.
The Broncos’ half of the seventh began with a single, followed by a steal of second. Later, Mee singled to center, putting runners on the corners with one out. Michael Maloney was able to knock in a run by grounding out to short to make it 3-1. Two pitches later, Roder was able to get Rick to line out, ending the inning.
To start the bottom of the ninth inning, Hallock brought in Penrod. The senior sat down the Broncos to end the game and put the Falcons back in the win column.
Also in doing so, Penrod recorded his ninth save of the season, a new program record for a single season. To add to that, the Wauseon, Ohio native now is tied for seventh all-time in BGSU history for career saves with 10.
BGSU out-hit WMU nine to five, and the Broncos left 10 runners stranded. Sova earned the win and Wizceb picked up a loss for the seventh time this season.
The Falcons look to win the series tomorrow afternoon at 1:05 p.m. in Kalamazoo, Mich.
