Baseball head coach Danny Schmitz will oppose his son Spencer Schmitz when the Falcons play The University of Akron this weekend.
Akron assistant coach, Spencer, was an assistant coach with Bowling Green for the past six seasons before accepting the position with the Zips in 2013.
The Falcons are coming off a win against Central Michigan and checking into the series at 13-19 on the season.
The series starters include Mike Frank, who will pitch against Akron Friday. Frank comes in with a 2-4 record and an ERA of 3.66 on 51, with 36 strikeouts.
Saturday’s starter will be southpaw Brett Fitzwater who, earlier this season, threw a combined no hit shutout with Chris Miller against Bucknell University. Fitzwater is 1-1 on the season with an ERA of 6.00 in his 12 innings pitched.
The series finale will feature Andrew Lacinak, who defeated Central Michigan in his last start this past Sunday.
“He gave us a great outing, in a nice bounce back game that we needed,” Schmitz said.
Lacinak has a team-high three wins, and is second on the team with 20 strikeouts, behind Frank.
T.J. Losby leads the orange and brown with a .422 batting average through the first 12 Mid-American Conference games. Losby is batting .327 through 32 games this season. Jeremy Shay leads the Falcons with 23 runs batted in, and 13 extra base hits this season, and shares the same batting average with Losby.
Losby currently holds the third position in consecutive games played in Falcons history. Sitting at 141 consecutive games played, Losby is just three behind Jeff Warnock who played in 2002-2005 for the Falcons. If Losby appears in all three games this weekend, he will tie Warnock for second in Bowling Green history.
Shortstop Brian Bien leads the Falcons with a .353 average and is tied for second on the team with eight steals. Just behind Bien is infielder Brandon Howard, who is batting .338 and has provided hitting in his 19 starts this season.
While the Falcons dropped 17 runs in Sunday’s game against the Chippewas, they also hit the long ball twice. Logan Walker and Trey Keegan both homered for the Falcons. In 32 games this season, the Falcons have hit five home runs, compared to their opponents’ 11. Greg Basalyga leads Bowling Green with two home runs on the season.
Schmitz comes into the weekend series with an overall record of 625-600-5 in his 24th season as head coach.
After the Falcons three game series against Akron, they will travel to Ann Arbor to face Michigan on Tuesday before a three game home series against Kent State.
