The BG baseball team will be hosting coach Danny Schmitz’s alma mater, Eastern Michigan University, in a three-game weekend series this upcoming weekend.
The Falcons and Eagles will meet Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 3 p.m., 1 p.m. and 1 p.m. respectively.
Schmitz played for the Eastern Michigan Hurons from 1974-77 and helped lead them to the College World Series finals in 1976. He also returned to Eastern Michigan as an assistant coach after he had a minor league career.
In 2013, the Eagles are 12-13 (2-4) and have a good resume of wins against elite conference opponents. Earlier in the season, Eastern Michigan split a series with Big 12 opponent Kansas and swept Big East member Cincinnati in a three game series in March.
EMU started off its Mid-American Conference season with a rocky start, being swept by Miami University in a three-game series, which the Eagles were out scored 23-10 by the RedHawks.
The Eagles redeemed themselves winning three of five games in a five-game home stand. The wins included a win against Concordia College and two wins against Ohio University. They lost to Ohio 5-3 in a 13-inning game and they lost to Michigan State, 9-3, on Wednesday.
The Falcons are projected to start right-handed pitchers Cody Apthorpe (Friday), Mike Frank (Saturday) and Trevor Blaylock (Sunday).
Apthorpe has the best earned-run-average (3.22 ERA) and record (1-2) of the three starters. Frank and Blaylock have a combined record of 1-9 and a combined ERA of 4.12. The three starters have a combined record of 2-11 and a combined ERA of 3.82.
The Eagles are projected to start right-handed pitcher Neil Butara (Friday), left-handed pitcher Brian Hill (Saturday) and left-handed pitcher Paul Schaak (Sunday).
All three of Eastern Michigan’s projected starting pitchers have two wins and they boast a combined record of 6-5. However, their ERA does not reflect their success on in the win/loss column — the three pitchers currently have a combined ERA of 4.70. Butara has the best ERA (4.17) of the three pitchers projected to start for the Eagles this weekend.
The Falcons have seven-straight MAC games including the weekend series against the Eagles, before facing Notre Dame.
