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.