BGSU baseball struggled with inconsistency throughout the 2026 season, missing the Mid-American Conference Tournament for the first time since 2023.
The Falcons finished the year 19-35 overall and 12-21 in conference play. The results marked the fewest wins for the program since 2022 (18), the fewest conference wins in a full season since 2019 (8) and the most losses since 2018 (39).
“It just never felt like we got in rhythm,” senior second baseman Sam Seidel said. “Rollercoaster, underwhelming, disappointing; I’d throw all those phrases in there.”
Schedule and Results
Bowling Green faced the toughest schedule in the MAC, which ranked 113th out of 308 teams in the country, according to D1Baseball.
The Falcons battled through an especially brutal beginning of the season.
The first seven teams BG faced (Georgia Tech, Western Carolina, Cincinnati, Samford, Kent State, Dayton and Miami (OH)) all had at least 31 wins and combined for a 263-132 record.
BGSU competed against the 14th toughest non-conference strength of schedule in the country, with nine of the team’s 14 non-conference opponents winning at least 30 games this season.
“You can look at that and see it as a way of understanding why this team didn’t quite get into the rhythm of winning, or maybe, the expression is love winning because they definitely didn’t like to lose,” head coach Kyle Hallock said. “Just getting in the rhythm of winning was the biggest challenge. Being consistent day in and day out with our standard of play, how we enter the park, how we’re going to do things, and I think good teams force you to learn that about yourself early on.”
The Falcons won just two series, sweeping Akron and taking two of three from Western Michigan.
The high point of the season for the team was a six-game winning streak at the beginning of April. After sweeping the Zips, Bowling Green cruised past Ohio State on the road, crushed Lourdes and won the series opener over Central Michigan.
“Beating Ohio State’s a big deal,” Hallock said. “I would say our series against Akron and our series against Western Michigan were probably the most consistent we played. I would say where we won six in a row, we played pretty good baseball and had some things rolling.”
Outside of the winning streak, there was not another point in the season where BG won back-to-back games.
Some of the team’s toughest losses included a 27-4 blowout against Georgia Tech, two straight losses to Ohio (who finished last in the MAC), a 13-1 defeat against Kent State in seven innings, a five-run loss to Division II Findlay at Steller Field, a 21-13 loss to Central Michigan in the series rubber match, a 19-6 loss to Dayton in seven innings at home, three straight one-run defeats to UMass, a 15-5 loss to Toledo in eight innings at Fifth Third Field and a 10-2 defeat against Ball State in the final game of the season to get swept by the Cardinals.
“They grew up as kids. They were put in a lot of adverse situations, some self-inflicted, some as a result of the other team playing well. I think wefound out a lot about how to handle adversity,” Hallock said. “We just need to learn how to handle those situations better as a team because it’s a team sport and we need everybody top to bottom, starting with me, to handle those things the right way and at a high level.”
Despite all of the inconsistencies, the Falcons were still battling for a spot in the conference tournament in the final series of the year.
“I think it’s a testament to where these guys want to play,” Hallock said. “Then, the fact that they’re not going to give up and the fact that they always believe they have a chance to win that game. Whether it’s to qualify for the postseason or not, they do have a lot of confidence.”
Struggles
Above all else, inconsistency stands alone as the biggest struggle for the Falcons.
Although the team went 9-9 across Thursday and Friday games, Bowling Green was just 4-11 on Saturdays and 1-8 on Sundays.
BGSU finished the season just 1-9 in tiebreaker games.
“That’s the one that’s going to provide a lot of motivation is to be right in those series with a lot of people, and then go one for 10, it’s just not good enough. It’s not good enough,” Hallock said.
The team’s inconsistency was highlighted best in the batter’s box.
Bowling Green finished last in the MAC in runs scored (263), batting average (.242), on-base percentage (.341) and slugging percentage (.373).
The Falcons ranked in the bottom 26 teams in the country in all four stats.
“I think we had some guys pressing at times,” Hallock said. “I think they’re all competitive to a point where some guys may try and do too much, and pitch selection at times was something we want to talk about.”
BGSU also struggled situationally, hitting just .218 with two outs and only .167 (7-for-42) with the bases loaded.
“Runners left on bases with two outs was a big deal in our wins and losses,” Hallock said. “The other team did a better job with two outs, whether that’s scoring runs off of our pitching and defense or us not cashing in with two outs. That’s what good teams do; they get it done in those situations. So, fall ball is going to have a lot of those scenarios out there, a lot of game-like situations. Alright, bases are loaded, you pitch out of it, you hit out of it; let’s find out about some of this stuff. We’ve got a lot to accomplish.”
Additionally, Bowling Green did not have a qualified batter hit above .300, the first time this has happened during a full season since the 2016 campaign.
“The game is already hard enough, round ball, round bat,” Seidel said. “Having that added pressure and the focus that’s not on the task at hand definitely makes it tougher.”
The falters at the plate were highlighted by Seidel—the only former All-MAC selection on the team—who hit just .239, including a .193 mark during conference play, the worst of all qualified batters for the Falcons.
“Obviously, I didn’t expect going into this year to have my numbers play out the way they did,” Seidel said, “With this being my last year, it became my goal to go out there every day and just fight for my teammates. I wanted to set the numbers aside and just go out there, play hard and try to have fun with the game.”
Once again, injuries heavily impacted Bowling Green’s season.
“It was tough to deal with, and some guys were put in situations I don’t think they expected to be going into the year,” Seidel said.
Redshirt junior first baseman Brady Birchmeier—the main power bat in the lineup—played just 10 games. He exited the second game of the series against Kent State on March 7 and missed the rest of the season.
“Brady had a slow start to the season, but he was just starting to get hot before he went down,” Hallock said. “He was really starting to turn the corner when he was squaring up balls, and the ball he was hitting in the gaps had carry. One of his home runs looked like a line drive double, and it just carried over the fence. I just remember thinking, ‘There it is. You know, here it comes.’”
Meanwhile, senior right-handed pitcher Jacob Turner—the team’s ace—started only five games before suffering a season-ending injury to his right arm.
“He had slowed the game way down,” Hallock said. “I mean, his fall ball was short but dominant, like taking a varsity-level player down to play a JV game. It became easy for him … It had gone from good to dominant.”
Then, in the middle of the season, redshirt sophomore right-handed pitcher Nate Kress, who had emerged as the team’s Saturday starter, last pitched on March 28 before missing the rest of the year with an injury.
“He won the two Saturday games at Kent and Miami, and his appearance out of the bullpen got us our first win in the season,” Hallock said. “He pitched in a manner that he was not going to let us lose when we were out there.”
Additionally, sophomore infielder Brayden Curlis, junior infielder Vinny Salvione and junior outfielder Pauly Mancino all battled undisclosed injuries at various points of the season.
Junior first baseman and outfielder TJ Takats also spent the season playing through his recovery from a torn ACL and meniscus from last season.
“Those guys are important; they’re main dudes in our program. Their presence between the lines allows other people to be in the right roles and be in the right spots,” Hallock said. “That’s the real gift of good players is where they put everyone else so they can have success, so there’s not as much pressure on this guy to go do it where Brady’s spot in the lineup is or where Jacob’s spot in the rotation is or where Nate’s spot in the rotation is. You look at the guys who filled it with and their efforts to get to go and do that and the learning curve that they got and the experience that they got, it’s going to be invaluable for next year because we probably sped up some of that progression with some of these guys.”
Highlights
One of the most exciting moments of the season was redshirt sophomore infielder Alex Laird breaking the Bowling Green single-game steals record.
The redshirt sophomore infielder swiped seven bags against Akron on April 4, setting a new MAC record and falling just one shy of the NCAA Division I record. He finished the season tied for the team lead with Seidel in stolen bases with 18.
Additionally, the Falcons broke the program’s single-season strikeout record for the third consecutive year, tallying 480 punchouts.
The mark ranked second in the MAC and blew past last year’s mark of 431.
Leading the charge on the mound was redshirt senior left-hander Ethan Stade—the biggest breakout performer for the Orange and Brown—who earned All-MAC First Team honors and won a conference-best three MAC Pitcher of the Week awards.
“I came here having the trust of coach Hallock to let me play my game. Then, just having the confidence to be able to perform,” Stade said. “Having the season I had is super awesome. To me, being selected is such a blessing. If you’d asked me a year ago, if this was the outcome and if I would still come here? I one hundred percent would, no doubt in my mind.”
Stade led the MAC with 103 strikeouts and ranks sixth in the country with 14.5 strikeouts per nine innings after transferring from Minnesota State.
“He’s one of three people ever to strike out a hundred guys in a season here,” Hallock said. “He’s going to have a chance to play professional baseball here in the next couple months.”
After pitching just 3.2 innings during non-conference play, the 6-foot-4 southpaw became the ace for the Falcons and hurled a 3.88 ERA across a team-high 60.1 innings in conference play.
Everything changed for Stade in his final non-conference appearance before he solidified himself by striking out 11 of 12 batters in his outing against Kent State.
“We felt like he could start in the winter, but his availability was limited. His pitch count was limited in January, so we couldn’t stretch him out. We had to be cautious so we could have him at the beginning of the year,” Hallock said. “Then, from the Cincinnati start to the Sanford appearance out of the bullpen, where he came in and struck out all three. I’m like, let’s get him an inning right now and see what he does with it. I told him about competing at a high level, see if he understood that conversation, and he did. He punched out all three guys, and he was a completely different dudefrom that point on.”
Another arm that stepped up in the second half of the season was junior right-hander Andrew Heffernan.
After transferring from Merrimack, Heffernan struggled in non-conference play with an 11.29 ERA.
However, he found success in the back half of the year, tossing a team-best 3.64 ERA in conference play.
“He bought into what we do and how we did it, and he caught a nice stretch there in the middle of the year where he was effective. He found a way to be effective,” Hallock said. “He was about what was best for the team. He went to the bullpen to figure it out, and came out throwing a little bit harder, a little bit firmer and a little bit more with an edge. Then, we’re able to put that back from the bullpen to right after the national anthem to start, and he gave us some quality starts down the stretch.”
Overall, the team’s pitching staff stepped up against MAC competition.
The Falcons ended the season with the fourth-best ERA (5.50) and opponent batting average (.272) in the MAC during conference play.
The most consistent bat in the order was also a transfer in the form of redshirt senior infielder Anthony Mitta, who led the team with a .298 batting average after transferring from Mount Olive.
“He stepped up. He put together some big-time at-bats, and he carried us in some games at times and became a stable option in the middle of the order,” Hallock said. “It’s a southern kid coming up to play in the north. There’s a lot of adjusting that has to happen in a short amount of time, and he did a nice job with it.”
Another transfer bat that had a major impact was junior catcher Lance Vickers, who finished the year with a .268 batting average across 34 games played after transferring from Allen Community College.
He started the season as the third-string catcher but was a consistent batter in the top half of the lineup by the end of the year.
“The transfer class as a whole really stepped up and really did their job,” Stade said.
Finally, the freshman trio of left-handed pitcher Jackson Miller, catcher Andrew DiLodovico and shortstop Griffin Scheiderer all showed flashes throughout the season.
Miller solidified himself as the Sunday starter throughout conference play. Meanwhile, DiLodovico led the team with seven home runs and a .455 slugging percentage, and Scheiderer grew throughout the season as the starting shortstop.
However, the biggest highlight of the season for Bowling Green was the new renovations at Steller Field, which include a turf field and bullpens, lights and a padded outfield wall.
“That was something that was talked about for at least five years,” Seidel said. “So, to see it come to fruition and being able to see that alumni support and it actually coming together was super exciting for us, and all of our guys were very appreciative of that. We wish we could have put a better product on it this year, but I know going forward this program is going to be in a great spot, and with that turf especially, it’s going to bring a lot of excitement to this program.”
Next Up
Hallock believes the current players’ progressions throughout the summer will be pivotal to what the Falcons’ ceiling will be next year.
“You’ve got summer baseball to either go play and get better and take those reps seriously and get something done with them, or you’re rehabbing or training or getting stronger and fixing some mechanical stuff,” Hallock said. “I really think that these next two or three months will set the foundation for where we start in the fall.”
Additionally, Hallock does not foresee much change in the coaching staff’s approach to the transfer portal.
“I think our plan is to continue to look at using the portal to fill what that next team is going to need immediately,” Hallock said. “From a recruiting strategy, I think that the high school kid will continue to remain the priority for us. We need to have a little bit bigger high school class, which I think we’ll do in 2027 and with 2028, and then again fill needs as we have them with the portal because continuity is king.”
Ultimately, the Falcons aim to use this season as motivation to return to contention and punch a spot in Avon next year.
“I know that we will bounce back,” Hallock said. “I know how they feel when we talked about the end of the season, and I know those who are returning will use this. I don’t expect much external motivation needed from our part because I believe we have a lot of internally motivated players.”
