The third day of the Mid-American Conference (MAC) baseball tournament has ended, with a seemingly rare occurrence of zero rain delays in Avon, Ohio, at Crushers Stadium.
By the end of the day, the three scheduled games for the day were all played in full at their original times.
Here are my Falcon Four takeaways from day three of MAC tournament action at Crushers Stadium in Avon, Ohio:
Miami (OH) proved that they are the top seed in the tournament
Even with being crowned Co-MAC regular season champions, the doubt of the RedHawks in the tournament was loud and clear.
Teams such as Kent State and Ball State were seen as favorites over the number one-seeded RedHawks, even though they had won regular season series against both.
The Red and White put those doubts to rest after their opening 10-4 win over the fifth-seeded Toledo Rockets in the first game of day three.
Miami (OH) was dominant on both sides of the game. Offensively, they put up seven of their 10 runs in the fifth and sixth innings to put the game out of reach. Defensively, the RedHawks only allowed four runs on six hits.
Overall, the Red and White made the game look easy, something that doubters of the team were not expecting.
Timing is everything, especially when it comes to throwing pitchers
With teams attempting to save their best arms for later games, it raises the question of whether it is worth the risk of dropping a possible win.
The first interesting pitching change came in the matchup between Toledo and Miami when the RedHawks went to their most decorated reliever, Carson Byers, to pitch the final three innings of an already 10-4 ball game.
It seemed like a waste to use Byers, even for only three innings, in such a pointless part of the game.
The next pitching decision came when Ball State tried to play the long game by saving ace pitcher Keegan Johnson for the following game and trying to make do with their two-man Jacob Hartlaub before taking a heartbreaking 9-8 loss to Kent State.
Depending on the rest of the tournament, this decision is one that the Cardinals will look back on and wonder if it was worth the gamble.
Finally, rounding out the pitching on a positive note, Toledo took a chance and let Freshman MAC Pitcher of the Year winner Brady Sasse take the mound for their second game of the day.
Sasse would shine for the Rockets while keeping them in the tournament after a 6-2 victory against Eastern Michigan.
With some positive and some negative, many teams will look back on the day three pitching battles with more questions than answers as to whether they were correct in their decisions.
Kent State against Ball State could very easily be the game of the tournament
The preseason favorites to be matched up in the MAC championship game did not disappoint when the much-anticipated game was played on only day three.
KSU and BSU both demolished the ball hitting-wise, going for 15 and 16 hits each and scoring a total of 17 runs between the two.
Their spectacular matchup led to the game being tied 8-8 in the bottom of the ninth before Toledo junior catcher Brody Williams smacked a sacrifice fly out to center field just deep enough for a run to score from third.
With the game coming down to the final play and the electric atmosphere that was created, it will, without a doubt, be in contention for the game of the tournament.
The MAC tournament is very enjoyable without rain.
Let’s keep this one short and sweet: Rain does not make baseball very enjoyable to play or watch.
The first two days of this year’s MAC tournament were purely based on when the rain would allow someone to play; this did negatively affect the Falcons as they were forced to play multiple games within a short period of time, resulting in their elimination from the tournament.
Day three was different in Avon, Ohio, at Crushers Stadium, as sunny skies and slightly windy conditions filled the ballpark with joy.
With the ability to get a full three games in on day three, the MAC tournament finally started to feel like a true work of art.
