The inclement weather has already forced the BG baseball team to postpone many games this season.
Saturday was no different as their game against Northern Illinois got moved to Sunday afternoon for a doubleheader.
“Mother Nature has not been very kind to us. It is what it is and you have to make adjustments, and we ended up over in Indiana and it was good that we were able to get the games in,” BG baseball coach Danny Schmitz said.
In Sunday’s doubleheader, the Falcons won both games against the Huskies by a score of 4-1 in game one and 7-3 in game two.
The series was played at Grand Park in Westfield, Ind. The Falcons won two out of the three games on the weekend series against the Huskies.
However, in Friday night’s game the Falcons were shut out, losing by a final score of 9-0. Northern Illinois did all of their scoring in three innings. The Huskies scored two runs in the first, three runs in the third and four runs in the ninth inning.
Northern Illinois outhit BG in the game and the Falcons left 11 runners on base. Despite recording eight hits, NIU was aided by seven walks and two hit batters.
The Huskies early scoring knocked Falcon starting pitcher Cody Apthorpe out of the game after 2.2 innings. He allowed four earned runs on five hits and two walks.
Falcon pitcher Devin Daugherty pitched a career high 5.2 innings in relief. Daugherty allowed one run off of a sacrifice fly.
BG shortstop Brian Bien had three of BG’s six hits in the game. He went 3-for-4 on the night.
“Brian is our most consistent player both offensively and defensively. He takes care of his business both on the field and in the classroom,” Schmitz said.
In the first game of Sunday’s doubleheader, BG catcher T.J. Losby recorded two hits and one RBI in the win. Falcon second baseman Logan Walker and outfielder Jesse Rait also recorded an RBI in the game.
BG pitcher Mike Frank pitched seven innings and gave up one hit to record his first win of the season. Ethan McKinney pitched two innings in relief and recorded his third save of the season.
“Mike Frank’s performance was huge; we talked to the seniors yesterday about some things and what we needed to improve on and we talked about him and how he needed to give us a good performance. This was exactly what we needed for the team,” Schmitz said.
In the second game of the doubleheader, Falcon catcher Jeremy Shay and designated hitter Jake Thomas each had two hits and two RBIs to help lead BG to victory. BG infielders Brandon Howard and Logan Thomas also each had two hits in the doubleheader finale.
With the wins on Sunday, BG improves to 8-16 and are now 2-4 in MAC play. NIU now has a record of 4-20-1 so for on the season.
“It’s nice to see the team smile again. We went through a tough streak lately; hopefully this is a nice shot in the arm to get us going,” Schmitz said.
