BGSU baseball (25-12, 13-7) suffered a heartbreaking 23-18 loss against the Ball State Cardinals (28-12, 14-3) on Friday.
Coming into the second game of the Mid-American Conference (MAC) series between the Cardinals and Falcons, a high-scoring affair did not seem in the cards.
Ball State starting pitcher senior right-hander Jacob Hartlaub is part of a dynamic pair of aces for the Cardinals between himself and sophomore left-hander Keegan Johnson.
The duo highlights the top of most MAC pitching statistical categories.
The Orange and Brown did not let the talks of spectacular pitching stop them from filling up the stat sheet offensively.
BGSU would bat through the order in both the first and second innings, a feat that does not come very often, but it happened twice for Orange and Brown.
Senior outfielder Gavin Ganun continued his impressive series against Ball State with a first-inning grand slam to help put the Falcons out to an early 6-2 lead after the first.
Ganun has now put up nearly identical stat lines through two games against the Cardinals, with a double and home run in each.
Freshman infielder Brayden Curlis was the only other Falcon to send one out of the park, his first home run of the season, to left field.
Senior infielder Gunner Antillon has been one of the hottest hitters in the MAC over the past few games, and he continued to showcase during the game with an absurd stat line.
Antillon would record a team-high five runs batted in (RBI) and tie a team-high four hits.
Junior catcher/outfielder Zach Horky and sophomore catcher Garrett Wright also record four hits.
The Falcon’s high run count was a team contribution, with eight of the starters scoring a run, and sophomore infielder Brady Birchmeier had a team-high four runs.
With windy conditions at Steller Field, the ball was leaving the park much more than normal.
A total of nine home runs between the two teams was largely elevated, with seven coming from Ball State.
Cardinals junior infielder Dylan Grego was the holder of three of the home runs, each one more important than the last.
Grego smashed a three-run homer into the right-field trees in the second inning to keep it a one-score ballgame before knocking another ball out of the park in the same spot to keep the lead at one once again in the eighth inning.
The day was not over for Grego as he would step up one final time to put the nail in the coffin on the win in the ninth inning with a grand slam to nowhere other than right field to give Ball State a 23-18 win.
The Cardinals only secured the lead twice in the game, the second coming in the top of the ninth inning. The only other time being the top of the first inning, leading 2-0.
BGSU will finish the MAC series against Ball State in an intense third game to decide the winner of the series on Saturday with the first pitch at 2:00 p.m.
Falcon Media Sports Network’s Chas McNeil and Coyle Withrow will have the call on Falcon Radio beginning at 1:45 p.m.
