BGSU baseball (16-24, 9-13) defeated the Toledo Rockets (18-24, 13-9) 9-5 Friday, largely due to the Falcons’ late, clutch offensive performance.
Bowling Green hit three home runs after trailing 5-2 at the beginning of the top of the fifth inning.
“I thought we put together a lot of quality at-bats one through nine,” said head coach Kyle Hallock. “I thought we grinded it out, and I thought we had a really good game plan.”
The Orange and Brown scored the game’s first run in the bottom of the second inning off Bowling Green Carter Mottice’s RBI single, and later scored another run off Toledo pitcher Nathan Leininger’s wild pitch that hit a Bowling Green batter with the bases loaded.
Just an inning later, UT’s JP Wagner led off the top of the third with a double off the right field wall. Then, Troy Sudbrook recorded a base knock, which allowed Wagner to cross home plate.
Following the third inning, the Rockets’ hot hitting continued, and Toledo scored three more runs in the top of the fourth inning after Sudbrook’s two-out, two-run double.
“We needed to relax,” said Hallock. “We needed to be ourselves, and we just kept fighting.”
The Rockets then added one more run at the top of the fifth inning, extending their lead to 5-2. However, TJ Takats later launched a three-run homer halfway up the pine trees over the right field wall for the Orange and Brown, knotting the score back to even, at 5-5.
“It was pretty special to have the team kind of get back into the game to tie it up 5-5,” said Takats.
UT’s Liam Arsich threatened the Falcons with a ground-rule double, putting runners at second and third in the top of the sixth inning, but BGSU’s pitching wouldn’t allow those two runners to score.
Then, Andrew Dilodovico smacked another long ball for the Falcons, connecting on a two-run home run in the bottom of the sixth inning, putting Bowling Green in front, 7-5. Finally, one last two-run shot by Sam Seidel put the Falcons in a comfortable 9-5 lead.
BG’s starting pitcher, Ethan Stade, threw 96 pitches, giving up all five runs. But it was the Orange and Brown’s two relievers who delivered in the clutch.
CJ Boudreaux was the first arm out of the bullpen, pitching efficiently down the stretch, striking out one batter and only allowing one hit in 1.1 innings on the mound.
Ty Roder pitched the final 3.1 innings, striking out three batters and only giving up two hits.
Bowling Green and Toledo will return to action at 3 p.m. on Saturday at Steller Field. Falcon Media Sports Network’s Tyler Kavalecz and Noah Seeley will have the radio broadcast of the rivalry matchup on WBGU 88.1 FM.
