Crazy Stuff

From now on this website will have all the articles I write for Buckeye State Baseball... I moved into a new apartment for the summer where I can't get internet, so that means I'm not going to be spending all my free time writing and reading about baseball. Probably not the worst thing for me at the moment but I'm still going to be writing for BSB and so that means there will be occasional Bowling Green stories but the articles will be mostly about the MAC in general, which is what I wanted to be doing eventually all along.

Bowling Green just lost two out of three to Kent State and is now tied for 1st place atop the MAC East standings with just one weekend left.

I'll get a brief preview for the upcoming weekend and then next week I'll get an extensive preview going for the MAC tournament in Chillicothe, Ohio.

One more thing, I am currently following an assistant coach around and will be for the summer, and writing articles about the experience throughout the summer. I'm hoping the articles will post both on here and BSB, but if your interested in what college baseball coaches do during the summer then check up on RAB more often!

Until then, sorry about the abrupt stop in Bowling Green coverage.

Thanks everybody for reading,

David Arnold

Falcons Meeting Expectations... Just In Time

Bowling Green is in first place of the MAC East today at 14-7 in MAC play, just like they were predicted to be by the MAC coaches in a preseason poll. If you were to ask coach Schmitz however if he thought his ballclub would be right here a month ago, he would surely shake his head no. What has happened on the field for the two-time defending MAC regular season champions is something that has to be talked about.

Only five short weeks ago, Bowling Green suffered the worst defeat in the history of the program, getting demolished by a surging Ball State team 32-10. The only reason Bowling Green even reached double digits that day was because walk-on freshman Michael Fahle hit a grand slam in his first ever at-bat during the ninth inning of that game. The loss put Bowling Green at 2-6 in MAC play and on the outside looking in for the MAC postseason tournament and well out of the picture for a third straight MAC title.

After the game that Saturday afternoon, the players at Bowling Green knew something had to change. They had a meeting after the game with the coaches, and then had a player’s only meeting. Things had to change; this was no way to play ball for a team with as much talent as the Falcons.

This wasn’t going to happen at Bowling Green; this wasn’t going to be the way the Seniors at Bowling Green went out. They wanted the freshman to experience what they had experienced in previous years.

Senior Derek Spencer took the rest of the season as a challenge, “We met with the guys and let them know that we had to go out and work hard, we could play better ball”. It was a wake-up call, and with this much veteran talent it was time for the club to suck it up and play like the team everyone expected them to be.

Then something happened. The next day Bowling Green belonged on the same field as Ball State. Suddenly the same team that had been outscored 44-16 during the first two games took the field Sunday on a mission. Led by Senior Kevin Leady and his stellar pitching effort the Falcons beat Ball State 8-2 in a game that would start the ball running on their current tear.

Since then Bowling Green has won 16 of their last 18 games and put themselves in a position to be part of the biggest weekend series of the MAC conference so far this season. That series is this weekend in Kent as the Falcons take on Kent State, second in the East by one game, with a game on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. This series is pressure packed and there will be tons of excitement surrounding it, but with the ups and downs this team has already faced they should be ready to take on the challenge.

Adding excitement to the series this weekend, the two teams are battling for the ‘Centennial Cup’, which is a trophy between the Bowling Green and Kent State athletic departments. Every time the two schools played each other in a sport over the past year the winner earned points for their school. At the moment Kent State leads Bowling Green by three points, but with a sweep of the Golden Flashes the standings would be tied and brought to an even 9.5 points.

Game one is scheduled for 3:00 P.M. Friday afternoon at Schoonover Stadium in Kent, Ohio.

Bowling Green Coverage on BSB

Buckeye State Baseball is a great website for anyone interested in college baseball within the state of Ohio. Writer Chris Webb has made a great, readable product for all us baseball nerds that love college baseball.

That being said, I've been pushing my pro-BG agenda on him for some time now and he's finally giving into the peer pressure, as he has posted a BG-Miami preview on BSB's front page along with an interview he had with Coach Schmitz this past week.

If the preview looks similar to mine it's because I helped him write the preview for Miami and Bowling Green.

Anyways, good publicity is always great, especially on a site like BSB. Support college baseball and support a great baseball website by checking out the story and interview by Chris.

Our goal is to make Chris pronounce his love for BG and have us be his second favorite school in Ohio (after OSU of course)! Muahaha...

Also, don't forget to become a fan of/like Roll Along Baseball and Buckeye State Baseball on facebook!

Preview: Miami (Not the cool Nike one, I'm talking about the other Miami that I dislike)

Who has Miami played?

Miami played a pretty harsh schedule to start the year, facing off against teams such as #19 Auburn and #14 Clemson. The RedHawks also faced off against dark horse Big-10 contender Michigan State in their third game of the season. Unfortunately they couldn’t actually beat any of these teams but it helped prep them for the conference season. Miami’s best win so far this season according to boydsworld.com’s RPI rankings was when on the 27^th of February they stole one game from #51 Louisiana-Lafayette, winning 7-5 in 11 innings.

Another impressive feat on the resume for Miami’s out-of-conference schedule was beating a Big-10 school… twice. Miami beat down Indiana University (#115 RPI) to the tune of 19-7 while the teams were on their spring break trip back in March. The RedHawks backed up their performance 34 days later when they beat the Hoosiers again, this time in Oxford, 8-6.

In conference Miami has been streaky at best, losing to teams they should’ve beaten and only winning two weekend series. Losing two out of three to Western Michigan (10-29,4-11) two weekends ago was a huge blow to their hopes of getting a conference-tournament bid.

The team did rebound last weekend by stomping their feet on an already battered and bruised Akron team who had lost 10 of their last 11 games going into the series.

Key Players

As a team Miami has been decent at the plate this year. With a .293 Team Batting Average the team is average with the bats, but on the basepaths is where they make up for the lack of hitting. The top three base stealers for the RedHawks have combined to successfully steal 37 out of 40 bases this season.

The team also has a player whose statistics are immeasurable when compared to his teammates.

Junior Adam Eaton leads the team in Batting Average (.363), At-Bats (157), Runs (44), Home Runs (9), RBI’s (42), Total Bases (107), Slugging % (.682), Base On Balls (13), Hit By Pitches (13), On Base % (.449), and Stolen Bases (20). That’s 11 offensive categories. I haven’t seen one player dominate a stat sheet like that all season. Jordon Janokowski also has some pop in his bat as he’s hit seven home runs on the year for the RedHawks.

The RedHawks pitching has been average at best with a 6.08 Team ERA and a 1.66 Team WHIP. Among the standouts for the staff is the dual threat Jordan Janokowski who along with hitting home runs saves games as well. He leads the team with a 3.75 ERA and six saves on the year. No player that has started a game this season for Miami has a winning record, but Mac Thoreson has been the most consistent. Despite a 3-3 record Thoreson has a 3.77 ERA and a 1.23 WHIP in 43.0 Innings Pitched.

Overall

Miami comes into the ‘battle of the birds’ series two games back of Bowling Green for second place in the MAC East (20-20, 7-8)

Key Stats

- Miami is 5-14 this year when they are the away team.

- Bowling Green has outscored opponents 40-23 in the first inning this season.

- Bowling Green is 12-4-1 when committing one or less errors while they are 7-14 when committing two or more errors.

- Bowling Green has a winning record (9-7) when the other team scores first and a losing record (10-11-1) when they are the first team to score.

Conclusion

Bowling Green is on a winning streak that mirrors last year’s end of year charge, which propelled the Falcons to first place in the MAC and gave them the conference regular season crown. Miami on the other hand has been streaky at best and probably is due for a few losses.

Prediction

Bowling Green will win the Friday, followed by a narrow loss at the hands of the RedHawks Saturday. Kevin Leady will dominate Sunday and Bowling Green will win their third conference series in a row.

Game 1

Bowling Green: 12

Miami: 4

Game 2

Bowling Green: 7

Miami: 9

Game 3

Bowling Green: 7

Miami: 3

Lack Of Content

Sorry about the lack of content, school is getting down to the nitty gritty and will be done sometime next week. Until then though my posting will be sporadic and lacking information.

Update though.

Bowling Green is now in 2nd place in the MAC East with a 9-6 record in-conference after a dominating weekend sweep of Ohio in Athens!

Bowling Green has won eight in a row and ten out of their last eleven games. Bowling Green is peaking at the absolutely right time and will be playing Miami this weekend at Stellar Field.

Most exciting time of the year is also the craziest.

Roll Along!

Buckeye State Baseball

I will be contributing to Buckeye State Baseball now officially, probably writing mostly about the MAC and Bowling Green, but you should check out the website because it's pretty nifty. Especially if your a die-hard baseball fan.

Falcons Continue Hot Streak

On a perfect day in Bowling Green, Ohio the Falcons continued their winning ways beating down the Western Michigan Broncos to the tune of 19-4. Bowling Green had a first round KO of sorts that was reminiscent to the Mike Tyson glory days.

Freshman pitcher Michael Klett of WMU loaded the bases in the bottom of the first by walking the first two batters of the game then giving up a single to Dennis Vaughn. Senior Derek Spencer then threw the first haymaker of the day when he blasted the first pitch he saw opposite field over the wall right beside the scoreboard. The grand slam set the tone for the game and proved that the Falcons were not going to give this game up.

Every single Bowling Green starter scored at least once and had at least one RBI with the lone exception being super Sophomore Jon Berti, who went 3 for 5 with a single, two doubles, two stolen bases, and scored three times.

Bowling Green threw six pitchers to the mound, but starter Nick Bruns earned the win going five strong innings, giving up seven hits and four runs on the day. The five other relievers combined to throw four innings of shutout relief.

Coach Danny Schmitz was pleased with the performance today.

“Three hour baseball games are only fun when your on the winning side of things, and hey, we were on the winning side today”.

The win improves Bowling Green’s overall record to 15-18-1 while Western Michigan falls to 9-27. Nick Bruns gets the win to improve to 2-1 on the season while Michael Klett gets the loss on the day and is now 0-1 for the season.

Even though both teams are in the MAC conference today’s game was considered an out of conference matchup.

Bowling Green On The Rise!

As two-time defending regular season MAC champions, Bowling Green came into conference play this year with lofty expectations. Bowling Green played a really tough out of conference schedule to start the year, facing potential Omaha bound squads Louisville and Kentucky, so when the team started out slow it wasn’t a huge worry for the Falcons.

When the trend continued into conference play however, things weren’t looking very good. Coach Danny Schmitz’s ballclub was reeling, only winning one game in each of the first three conference weekend series matchups for a 3-6 conference record.

Something Changed for the squad this past Friday night however when the Falcons traveled up I-75 to play rival Toledo. Schmitz knew the importance of the upcoming series.

“I just told our guys, hey this is a big series against a rival. This right here determines whether we’re pretenders or contenders this season.”

Oh man did his boy’s respond.

After recently being on the wrong side of a 32-10 affair with Ball State during the previous Saturday, Bowling Green decided to have a scoring spree of their own this past Friday, beating the Rockets to the tune of 20-15.

“That game really knocked the wind out of their sails… they came to the ballpark the next day and weren’t quite as loud and didn’t bring the same emotion we had.” Said Bowling Green Senior Derek Spencer.

Game one not only set the tone for a weekend series sweep of Toledo, but it might end up being a season changing win for Bowling Green. Rivalry games can do that to you sometimes. They bring out intensity sometimes that can’t be brought out any other way, and for the first time this season Bowling Green is looking like a team that deserves the lofty expectations given to them at the beginning of the year.

Red-hot Sophomore Jon Berti added, “It’s been sort of a snowball effect. We know we can win ballgames now… we have to go out and take two out of three in every series from now on.”

Before playing Toledo last year Bowling Green was 7-6 in conference play, but after beating their rival reeled off 12 of their last 14 conference games including beating Toledo to win the MAC regular season crown. After sweeping Toledo this past weekend Bowling Green has set sail on a similar path, improving to 6-6 in conference and only sitting one game back of MAC East leader Kent State (20-18, 7-5).

This upcoming weekend is also huge in determining how Bowling Green is going to finish the season as they travel to Athens to play Ohio University who, despite struggling at the beginning of the season, is 6-6 in MAC play and tied with the Falcons for second in the MAC East.

After winning six of their last seven, including today’s 19-4 beatdown on Western Michigan, Bowling Green might finally have the momentum needed to make a strong second-half push at a third MAC regular season crown. So, to the Buckeye State, watch out because this is a dangerous team that is peaking at the perfect time this season.

Weekend Review: Holy Toledo!

Oh man! I believe Bowling Green State University just swept rival Toledo! All I can say is wow!

The sweep puts Bowling Green into second place in the MAC East standings as of today, putting them in position to play in the MAC baseball tournament.

I'm going to give you the scores and box scores and not much else today because I have a ton of school work to get to right now.

4/16/10

Bowling Green: 20

Toledo: 15

Box Score

4/17/10

Bowling Green: 8

Toledo: 7

Box Score

4/18/10

Bowling Green: 4

Toledo: 2

Box Score

Falcons Blow Past Rockets As Rivalry Heats Up

Bowling Green today showed glimpses of their 2009 form, crushing rival Toledo 20-15 in game one of the battle of I-75. To clue you in on how crazy of a game this was today, the winning pitcher Brennan Smith gave up 12 hits and 9 earned runs in 5.1 innings pitched. And he was credited with the win for the Falcons.

Bowling Green scored two or more runs in six of the first seven innings. The scoring spree started with four runs in the first and second innings, six in the third and two runs in the fourth, fifth, and seventh innings.

Every single Bowling Green hitter had at least one RBI in the game, with catcher Ryan Schlater leading the pack hitting a home run and batting in four runs. Senior Derek Spencer also homered for the Falcons, recording three RBI’s on two hits.

Toledo’s bats were hot as well however, and Dan Sherwood led the way hitting two home runs on the day, recording five RBI’s today. Seven of the nine Rocket hitters recorded an RBI and every single one crossed home plate at least once. Toledo was held scoreless only in the first and ninth innings, but the 15 runs was just not enough to get by Bowling Green on this day.

If Friday afternoon is any indication might want to stop by Scott Park if you live near Toledo because this weekend is going to be a fun one, especially if you love offense.

Bowling Green’s overall record improves to 11-18-1 with a 4-6 record in MAC play. With the loss Toledo falls to 21-11 on the year with an 8-2 record in conference play.

Preview: Toledo

Who have they played?
Coming into this current week Toledo was the #1 ranked team in all of Ohio, ranking 85th in the RPI overall nationally, where as the powerhouse Ohio State team was ranked 87th coming into this weekend. In out of conference play the Rockets have played a fairly week schedule, with a single game against Coastal Carolina (#7 RPI), and College of Charleston (#41) being the only two RPI top 50 teams they’ve played so far. Michigan and Pittsburgh are also two good baseball teams in the top 70 RPI wise that Toledo has played. Inside MAC play Toledo is 8-1, which is tied for tops in the conference with Central Michigan. The most impressive thing about the record is that five of those wins have been against the MAC East favorites Kent State (19-16, 6-3) and Akron (15-16, 2-7).

Key Players
Toledo can really hit the ball, hitting 39 moon shots (too easy) in 31 games as compared to opponents only hitting 24 during the same games. Joe Corfman is hitting .373 on the year with 32 RBI’s and has a .439 On Base %. Chris Dudics leads the team with a .384 batting average and is 9 for 10 in stolen base attempts on the year. Jared Hoying has a team leading 36 dingers on the year and 36 RBI’s while Dan Sherwood has a team leading 37 RBI’s with 8 home runs so far.

The pitching staff so far can be described as dominant. The three expected weekend starters are a combined 10-4 on the year, with Mike Hamann leading the Rockets showing off a stellar 2.47 ERA and a WHIP of 1.01 after seven starts. Kyle Shaw and Lincoln Rassi are not far behind with both pitchers having ERA’s under 4.00 and a WHIP of 1.22 and 1.65 respectively. The bullpen is downright disgusting as well, with four relievers all having an ERA of under 4.00. Matt Suschak is the go to guy however as he has an outrageous 1.66 ERA in 21.2 Innings Pitched over the span of 13 appearances.

Conclusion
Toledo is one of the best teams Bowling Green will see all year and probably the best team in the MAC conference. Toledo can hit and pitch better then anyone in the MAC but sometimes they do have trouble fielding the ball. If Bowling Green is to take the series and win at least two they have to rely on the starting pitchers to go deep into ball games and hope the bullpen holds up. The only way to beat great pitching is to pitch just as good. Bowling Green’s offense also needs to score at least eight runs a game to win. In the battle of I-75 the Rockets clearly have the edge this year, not even close.

Prediction
As much as I would love my Falcons to finally put up a series win in MAC play, I don’t see it happening this weekend. Frankly Bowling Green will be lucky to steal one game from Toledo. If BG can do that they will set themselves up to go on a conference winning streak with lowly Ohio and Miami coming up in the next two series.

Bowling Green Hangs On To Beat Pesky Vikings

Today two schools in BSB territory faced off in a mid week inter-conference game that ended up being one of the better games I’ve seen so far this year. A battered and bruised Bowling Green squad managed to squeak by a young Cleveland State team 6-5 in ten innings. Freshmen Nick Bruns and Patrick O’Brien combined to pitch all ten innings for Bowling Green, tallying eight strikeouts and only recording one walk the whole game.

Bowling Green head coach Danny Schmitz proudly remarked, “Nick and Pat really provided us with a great pitching performance today, and since we only have eleven healthy pitchers at the moment we really needed them to go out and do that.”

Catcher Ryan Schlater started off the scoring blasting a shot over the left field fence to put Bowling Green up 1-0 in the bottom of the second inning and by the end of the third Bowling Green was up 4-1. The Vikings scored two in the seventh and then in the eighth inning Bob Suitca singled into centerfield to score third baseman Kyle Shaffer and tie the game up. The game remained tied until the bottom of the tenth inning when Bowling Green Senior Tyler Elkins of Hamilton, Ohio doubled down the third base line to score Jon Berti and win the ballgame for the Falcons. The win improves Bowling Green’s record to 10-17-1 overall while Cleveland State falls to 8-20 on the season.

Even though Cleveland State lost today their head coach Kevin Kocks was fairly optimistic.

“We’re a young team, we have mostly freshman and sophomores on the roster… I’m encouraged by today because we gained experience.”

When asked about the Vikings past weekend in which they took two games from Horizon League favorite Wright State Kocks had this to say.

“After this weekend (against Wright State) we are building for the future. Wins like that prepare us for the future, building a program takes time... our goals are still to win a conference championship, which is very much still in reach, and to get better everyday.”

Senior centerfielder TJ Blanton went 0-4 on the day to snap a 21-game hit streak. The hit streak was the longest in the MAC and ranked in the top 10 nationally. Patrick O’Brien earned his second win on the season to improve to 2-2 while Pat Shedlock gets the loss to drop his record to 1-3 on the year.

Bowling Green travels to Ann Arbor today to face the University of Michigan (19-11, 4-2) and then to Toledo (21-10, 8-1) this weekend to face their arch rivals. Cleveland State plays Kent State (18-16, 6-3) today and at Valparasio (11-19, 2-1) in a conference series matchup this weekend.

Weekday Games: Cleveland State & Michigan

This week Bowling Green welcomes Cleveland State to the Stell Tuesday and then travels up to Ann Arbor for a game Wednesday. I don't have extensive previews for either but I will put up records and such.

For a preview of the Michigan game however go check an interview Mgoblog.com contributor Formerly Anonymous had with me. In the interview he discusses the matchup and gives a preview of how the game will go.

Anyways. Here are the matchups for Tuesday and Wednesday.

4/13/10

Bowling Green (9-17-1, 3-6)

vs.

Cleveland State (8-19, 2-4)

4/14/10

Bowling Green (9-17-1, 3-6)

vs.

University of Michigan (18-11, 4-2)

I'll be posting a preview of Toledo in the next day or two for everyone. By the way, I would love it if you became a fan of Roll Along Baseball on facebook! Thanks for the support!

Recap: Ball State

Well... Friday and Saturday were both full of facepalm moments for Bowling Green, as they were outscored by a, no joke, 44-15 margin. Ball State put up 32 runs Saturday alone. No lie. The Ball State Cardinals put up 32 runs Saturday and setting a record for the most runs ever scored by an opponent against Bowling Green.

The crazy thing about this weekend was that just as Bowling Green looked like a cellar-dweller this year in the MAC, freshman walk-on Michael Fahle hit a grand slam home run in his first ever collegiate at bat in the bottom of the 9th Saturday which seemed to spark the club and push them to a victory Sunday. Although Saturday was for a long time a lost cause, that home run was the start of nine positively amazing innings for the Falcons. Ball State is a great baseball team capable of making the NCAA tournament this year and while getting one win from this team might sound discouraging, the journey of the weekend might get this team going finally.

4/9/10

Bowling Green: 6

Ball State: 12

Box Score

4/10/10

Bowling Green: 10

Ball State: 32

Box Score

4/11/10

Bowling Green: 9

Ball State: 3

Box Score

Game 1 Recap

After all the baseball I saw Saturday and Sunday, Friday seems like a long time ago. Basically, another bad loss by Bowling Green that followed the same pattern as most of BG's losses. Bad pitching, bad fielding, and hitting that can't capitalize on opportunities. Bowling Green left 12 on base and also committed four errors. The starting pitcher Brennan Smith only threw 2.1 innings, giving up eight hits and six earned runs.

- TJ Blanton extended his hitting streak to 19 games.

- The game lasted 3 hours and 29 minutes. Ouch! I was getting tired just watching the game. It felt like a Red Sox-Yankees game.

- Jon Berti went 3-4 and really had a good day at the plate.

- Ball State's starting pitcher Perci Garner hit 96 mph on the radar multiple times. The kid was a scholarship quarterback for Ball State and walked-on to the baseball team last year. Now he's quit football and is on scholarship for baseball and a draft prospect for this June's MLB draft. He has a mid-80s slider and a nasty curveball that makes hitters knees buckle.

- There were over ten scouts at Friday's ballgame, presumably to see Perci Garner and All-American second baseman Kolbrin Vitek, who is projected to be a 1st or 2nd round pick in the upcoming MLB draft.

Game 2 Recap

Wow. Saturday's game. Wow. I have seen lots and lots of baseball in my life... but I've never seen all the things I saw in one game.

- I haven't seen one team score 32 runs.

- I've never seen 42 total runs scored in a game either.

- I've never seen a pitcher with an ERA of 243.00 until I saw the stat line for pitcher Justin Warrington after Saturday's game.

- I've never seen a player walk up to the plate in his first ever collegiate at bat and hit a grand slam... that cut the deficit from 26 runs to 22 runs.

- This game lasted 3 hours and 21 minutes... somehow beating Friday's game but nonetheless taking forever. This series would've made Joe West cry.

Game 3 Recap

Losing the first two games of this series by a combined score of 44-18 the Falcons had a new look to them Sunday dominating and winning the final game of the series 9-3.

- The team came out and played the best defense I've seen them play this year. Jon Berti and Logan Meisler combined to make at least five outstanding defensive plays that held Ball State to only two runs in the first and one run in the ninth.

- Ball State imploded in the sixth inning, committing all four errors. The team kind of looked tired after the whooping they layed on BG the day before.

- TJ Blanton recorded a hit in every game this weekend extending his MAC best 21-game hitting streak.

- Kevin Leady is the ace of the Bowling Green staff. He now has four of the nine overall wins by Bowling Green this season. He threw 45 pitches in the first inning alone but rebounded to go seven full innings... striking out seven and only walking three despite the fact he got into nine full counts on the day.

What Does This Mean?

Bowling Green drops to 9-17-1 overall and 3-6 in the MAC after this weekend... putting them in 5th place in the MAC East and 10th place overall in conference. To make the conference tournament Bowling Green needs to finish 8th or better in conference. Bowling Green needs to start winning weekend series and it has to start this weekend against I-75 rival Toledo. Unfortunately for BG, Toledo is 8-1 in conference and 21-9 overall, boasting both the best conference and overall records in the MAC.

Bowling Green just doesn't have the pitching depth to keep up with their opponents this year and if the bats don't have a great day the team is going to lose. It's point blank as simple as that.

Preview: Ball State

First off, sorry this preview took so long. I had a lot of school work this week and for the next two weeks I'll be pretty backed up, so posts might be slightly sporadic. I'll still be posting the basics though at least.

How have they played?

Ball State is coming off a tough 12-6 midweek loss to Indiana Tuesday and it 11-16 overall but is 5-1 in conference play. The team is the favorite to win the MAC West this season and so far has backed up the hype taking care of Miami and Ohio, going 5-1 in the two series, two teams they are supposed to beat. The defense is good, having only committed 39 errors in 27 games played, compared to Bowling Green’s 49 errors in 24 games this season. That could play a significant factor this weekend especially since the weather might be chilly, every baserunner will be crucial. One interesting weakness though is that Ball State strikes out a lot. They are second in the MAC with 229 strikeouts so far this season. They rank in the middle of almost every other statistic in the MAC however. The relief pitching has performed very well this season, and the bullpen of Ball State gives them a direct advantage in the later innings over Bowling Green once the starting pitchers have been replaced. This is a solid team that plays to win but is not great. They just get the job done.

Common Opponent

Up to this date Louisville is the only baseball team that has played both opponents. Bowling Green played Louisville in a very cold opening-season series in Kentucky, getting swept by the Cardinals, although the last game was an extra inning affair that the Falcons could've easily stolen. Ball State stole the last of a three game series back in the third weekend of March at Louisville. This was a quality win for Louisville as they were ranked #7 nationally at the time. There aren’t any inter-conference teams to compare these two with yet.

Key Players

Kolbrin Vitek is by far and away the best hitting on the Ball State roster this season, boasting a .413 batting average in 109 at bats. He also leads the team with seven home runs, 31 RBI’s, and a whopping .716 slugging %. He is to the Cardinal lineup what TJ Blanton has been to the Falcon lineup; their stats as of today match up almost evenly. The pitching staff of Ball State has a lot of good pitchers. There really aren’t any dominating top pitchers aside of relief pitcher Morgan Coombs, who has a 2.11 ERA in five appearances and 21.1 innings pitched. That being said, the Cardinals have eight pitchers with significant (10+ IP) playing time that have an ERA under six. Meanwhile, Bowling Green only has four pitchers with such a distinction. If it counts for anything though, Justin Warrington has a 99.00 ERA in two appearances for Ball State, and hasn’t recorded one single out but has managed to walk four and allow four earned runs. Can he please pitch against Bowling Green this weekend please?

Conclusion

Ball State is the type of team I wish Bowling Green would play more like. Efficient defense, efficient offense, efficient pitching. Bowling Green has showed flashes of all three of these things this season… just not in the same game. Hopefully things will turn around for Bowling Green this weekend, but they have to play darned good baseball to do it. If Bowling Green wants to make the conference tournament they need to start winning conference games and weekend series.

Prediction

As much as I would love for my sister on sibs and kids weekend to come down and see a Bowling Green series win, I just don’t see it happening. Ball State will win the Friday and Saturday games while Bowling Green steals the final Sunday game.