BGSU baseball (30-16, 17-10 MAC) drops both games of Saturday’s doubleheader against the Toledo Rockets (22-26, 12-12 MAC) in the Battle of I-75’s three-game Mid-American Conference (MAC) series.
After the 8-3 win against Toledo Friday night at Fifth Third Field, the Falcons needed to win one of the two games of the doubleheader to clinch a spot in the MAC tournament.
Even though the Falcons took two losses with both the 8-3 and 8-1 scores to the Rockets, BGSU was able to clinch a spot in the MAC tournament based on results around the conference.
This gives the Orange and Brown their first back-to-back appearances in the tournament since 2014-15.
“Just had a bad day, pretty much it. Didn’t play well enough,” said head coach Kyle Hallock postgame.
BGSU’s offense could not get started in either game, having five hits in the first and three hits in the second.
Junior catcher/outfielder Zach Horky continued an impressive stretch of games against Toledo with a double down the right-field line.
Freshman infielder Brayden Curlis would score Horky with a single through the right side of the infield to give the Orange and Brown one of only four runs between the two games.
Horky got another single in game two along with sophomore catcher Garrett Wright to extend his hitting streak to 10 games and an on-base streak to 34.
Junior pitcher Jackson Bergman got the win on the mound for Toledo in game one, pitching seven innings and giving up two runs on four hits, three walks, and three strikeouts.
The Rockets would score multiple runs in three straight innings from the fifth to seventh to help boost them to an 8-2 lead and eventually propel them to an 8-3 win in game one.
Freshman pitcher Brady Sasse made it through six innings in game two for the Rockets, only giving up two hits along with six strikeouts.
Toledo senior outfielder Caden Konczak led the way hitting for the Rockets, tallying four hits along with two stolen bases in game one and a hit and RBI in game two.
The Falcons had one of their worst defensive games in game one, accumulating six errors. This is the most for the Brown and Orange in a game since they had six errors on May 19, 2022, in a game against Northern Illinois.
The Orange and Brown also had two more errors in game two.
“Can’t make eight errors and expect to win any baseball game at any level,” said Hallock.
With the end of the season on the horizon, Hallock made it very clear it is time for the Falcons to lock in.
“It’s no secret anymore, we got to get guys ready to go,” Hallock said. “We can’t spend any more time learning we have to do it now.
