The Bowling Green baseball team is hitting its late-season stride.

The poor start was well-documented, one to forget and appeared to be a bit too lofty to overcome. But the team just turned in its most complete weekend of pitching while still playing acceptable offense and defense to put them in the Mid-American Conference conversation.

After losing their first two MAC series’ — getting swept by Ball State before losing two of three to Northern Illinois — the Falcons have won their last three MAC series’ and are inching closer to a .500 record in the MAC.

While the road continues to get tougher, BG has worked its way into sole possession of fourth place in the MAC East while sitting in seventh of 12 teams overall.

Part of this success has come in part because of the chip the team has had on its shoulder since February.

“A lot of people are counting us out this year, but if we come out and play hard, we’ll be fine,” said Brandon Howard earlier

this season.

The success has come from more than just bulletin board material

however.

The x’s and o’s have begun to come together a bit more consistently for the Falcons, while executing the three phases of the game more often from game to game.

Over the weekend, Falcons’ starting pitchers conceded just a combined two earned runs over 22.2 innings, good for a 0.81 ERA. This has helped alleviate the tension to play perfect in the field while trying to fill the scoreboard game in and

game out.

The offense hasn’t faded all too much either.

During the same weekend series against Western Michigan, the Falcons accumulated 31 hits while pushing 19 runs across. The team struck out just 13 times over the three-game span, too. This includes 11 sacrifice hits and no homeruns, a calling card for the style of baseball that BG intended to play this season.

“We’re taking advantage of opportunities, advancing baserunners and doing the little things that we need to do to score runs,” said head coach Danny Schmitz.

BG is looking to continue this trend into the weekend with a big three-game series against first-place Central Michigan, Schmitz said.

With just 15 games remaining on their 50-game schedule, the Falcons understand that their best baseball must be consistently put on the field. With legitimate MAC championship aspirations, the Falcons must continue its recent winning trend.

“Starting this weekend at Central Michigan, every game matters the rest of the way,” Schmitz said. “CMU will be tough to beat on their home turf. We must execute in all three phases and play with great energy to give ourselves a chance this weekend.”