Home Opener: CMU

First off, I am the blogger for Bowling Green baseball's athletic department, so during games if you go to the website click on the link for the game. The link should be to a live blog that should look something like this. Come join me for all the home games!

Well, today was a defensive struggle for Bowling Green while Central had no complaints, capitalizing by scoring eight runs in the first five innings.

3/24/2010

Bowling Green: 7

Central Michigan: 12

Box Score

Game Recap

- Bowling Green threw out to the mound to start the game freshman right-handed pitcher Cody Apthorpe. Unfortunately for Apthorpe, he had a lot of trouble hitting the strike zone today. His stat line for the day was brutal, in three innings pitched he gave up six runs, only four of which were earned, off of five hits. He had three walks and only two strikeouts.

- Bowling Green threw seven pitchers today, all except for one went for at least a full inning. Today was just a day to get a lot of guys work to be prepared for the weekend home series against NIU.

- The most distressing part of today though were the errors, both defensively and baserunning. Only seven of CMU's twelve runs were earned, and BG had three critical defensive errors, all of which leading to runs being scored by the Chippewas. In fact, that's a tied game if BG played a perfect defensive game.

- Baserunning errors killed BG too, in particular there were two crucial errors on the same play that killed the Falcons best chance at coming back. Down 12-6 in the seventh inning the Falcons had runners on second and third with no outs when Clay Duncan ripped a shot down to the third baseman. The runner at third took off for home when he probably should of stayed, and the third baseman threw out the runner at home, but the worst part was when the runner at second couldn't decide whether to stay at second or try to get to third but ended up getting caught in between. The double play absolutely killed the rally for BGSU and pretty much ended the game right then and there.

- TJ Blanton continued his hitting hot streak today going two for three with one RBI.

- Taylor Rhoades had his first collegiate hit today.

Verdict?

A home opening win against a conference opponent (even though it was out-of-conference) would've been nice but it was by no means necessary. This was game five of eight in nine days so today was just a game where pitching was just too thin to win. At least Bowling Green got some good reps in on the home turf, the fans got to watch the ball fly off the bat, and now the attention focuses on the start of the MAC season (officially) with Northern Illinois (5-14, 0-0). I will be hoping to post a preview of Northern Illinois by tomorrow night or Friday at the latest.

Preview: Central Michigan University

Opponent: Central Michigan University (7-8, 0-0)

Place: Bowling Green, Ohio

Time: 3 p.m.

Just to be clear. CMU is in the MAC, but this is not an in-conference game. This is a tune up for both teams, as they both start up games this weekend that do count as conference games.

So lets size up the two teams.

Common Opponents?

Butler

- BG won the match up between the two teams 3-1 in a pitching duel between two offensive-minded teams. This was the only win for BG where they scored less than seven runs.

- CMU played Butler the day after BG did and lost the game 9-14. Central jumped on top in the beginning scoring eight in the first two innings, then failed to muster anymore than one more run the rest of the game. The most intriguing stat from the box score? Attendance at the game. 67 persons.

NDSU and Indiana were supposed to be other common opponents, but rain outs for BGSU ruined that. CMU lossed both games by the way.

Advantage? BGSU

Offense

Batting Average

BG: .319 (Matthew Pitzulo, .480)

CMU: .258 (Billy Anderson, .355)

Extra Base Hits

BG: 46 (TJ Blanton, 5 2B, 1 3B, 5 HR)

CMU: 39 (Billy Anderson, 7 2B, 1 HR)

Slugging %

BG: .476 (TJ Blanton, .900)

CMU: .365 (Billy Anderson, .516)

On Base %

BG: .393 (Matthew Pitzulo, .552)

CMU: .340 (Billy Anderson, .444)

Advantage? BGSU

Pitching and Defense

Earned Run Average:

BG: 6.81 (Ross Gerdeman, 1.50)

CMU: 4.65 (Rick Dodridge, 1.93)

XBH Allowed

BG: 50

CMU: 39

WHIP

BG: 1.74

CMU: 1.56

Errors

BG: 29

CMU: 21

Fielding %

BG: .944

CMU: .964

Advantage? CMU

Prediction:

After a completely scientific look at these two teams, it can safely be said that Bowling Green wins by hitting, hitting, hitting. Central is much more balanced of a team, and has not been that great at the plate this spring, at least compared to BG. I doubt neither team will use any dominating pitchers tomorrow, so the key will be errors. Who will make the key errors at key moments? Unfortunately for BG they average 1.9 errors a game while CMU averages 1.4 so that is an advantage for CMU.

However! Central's two highest scoring games this year however have both come against inferior NAIA teams in Davenport University and Concordia University, so CMU's offensive numbers might be slightly inflated.

Predicted Score:

BG: 14

CMU: 9

West Virginia Mid-Week

West Virginia met with Bowling Green in Chillicothe, Ohio today for a quick mid-week game.

3/23/2010

West Virginia: 10

Bowling Green: 7

Box Score (None as of yet, only a game recap from WVU)

Quick Hits:

- This win put WVU above .500 for the first time all season.

- I don't know how good WVU is, or if this means anything, but WVU went 3-1 in a 4 game series this past weekend, but the game they lost they ended up losing the game 23-0.... uh.... whoops?

Verdict:

It's a loss, but it's a mid-week game, after three huge wins vs. WKU. And it's against a Big East Team. Gotta take this one with a grain of salt. In other news the home opener is tomorrow against Central Michigan!

Bowling Green has a chance to break .500 for the first time this season with a win tomorrow and two wins this weekend. I doubt BG will use any of the starting rotation tomorrow, and a preview will be coming up soon tonight.

Invasion of Kentucky! (Part 3)

First off I would like to apologize, my schedule since I've been back from spring break has been brutal! But, I work with the Athletic Department and I'm scheduled to work every home game from now on. My focus this year is going to be the home games and keep you updated with other stuff when I can.

Hopefully I'll get a response for an interview with Head Coach Schmitz soon if I'm lucky (fingers crossed).

Quick recap of the last four games before the the preview of the home-opener which is tomorrow!

First off, BG earned a sweep of Western Kentucky! Three wins in two days!

3/19/2010

Bowling Green: 11

Western Kentucky: 9

Box Score

3/20/2010

Game 1

Bowling Green: 19

Western Kentucky: 10

Box Score

Game 2

Bowling Green: 7

Western Kentucky: 6

Box Score

Quck Hits:

- 2009 ESPN Academic All-American TJ Blanton had career highs when he went 4-5, belted three home runs, and had seven rbi's in game one of the double header saturday.

-37 runs by BG in a three game series just backs up what BG has done so far, proving that offense is what wins games for BG, not the defensive side.

- Unfortunately, of the 19 runs scored by BG in the first game of the double header Saturday, only 10 of them were earned. And seven of them were driven in by the the Falcons #9 hitter(!?) Blanton.

-Western Kentucky made a lot of errors defensively... to the tune of 11 errors in three games... maybe the home score keeper was a pitcher when he played...?

- Only four errors by Bowling Green during the whole series. Finally some good defense! In fact, rumor has it Blanton not only had three home runs but he also robbed WKU of one.

- BG won in the state of Kentucky! It took until game seven but hey. It's nice.

Spring Break: Baseball Players & Witches Melt In The Rain

Well, Bowling Green didn't end on a five-game winning streak like I had hoped, but they did end up with a three game non-losing streak! Unfortunately for the Falcons though, their spring break trip to the Sunshine state ended with, well, a lack of sunshine.

I'll give short recaps of the Sacrad Heart and Yale games and links to the box scores. Unfortunately, the links are to the other team's websites, but for some reason BG's site doesn't have box scores.

3/9/2010

Bowling Green: 16

Sacred Heart: 10

Box Score

Recap:

Dennis Vaughn led the hit-fest last Tuesday by belting the ball for three hits and five rbi's, he also crossed home plate himself two times. Both teams had high lob numbers (BG: 10 SHU: 9) but also scored a ton of runs. Bowling Green had a nice comfortable lead after four innings, winning 16-5 at that point, so the fact they gave up 10 runs for the whole game might be a little decieving. Considering it was the fourth game in as many days, the pitching depth was probably starting to wain a bit because no pitcher for BG went past 2.2 innings on the day.

Verdict:

Good win. Rough day for SHU's Matt Fitton, as his 6'9" inch frame wasn't intimidating enough to stop BG from running up his tab for the day. The guy finished with a stat line that looked like this...

IP: 2.2 H: 10 R: 11 ER: 11 BB: 4 SO: 0 BF: 22

That is rough! No strikeouts in 22 faced batters? That's a team that must've been short on pitching because who lets a pitcher give up 11 earned runs before pulling him? Good job stepping on a team's throat and not letting up. Good win, although unfortunately it would be the last victory for BG before heading back up to Ohio.

Updates Coming

Hey sorry guys, I just spent the last few days at my girlfriends house where we had no internet connection, and I also spent Saturday interviewing for a couple of internships with the Akron Aeros so it's been pretty busy.

So by the end of tomorrow hopefully I'll have:

-Updates on the rest of spring break.

-Data about tomorrow's oppenent for BG's first home game! (3 pm vs. Findlay)

It's looking like the spring break trip ended on a wet note, the last three games were cancelled due to the massive amount of rain everyone got this past week.

Spring Break Baseball: Butler University

Today was a matchup of two teams with bad records playing each other in what should have been another high scoring affair. Butler (2-5) had given up 7+ runs in every single game up until today. Bowling Green (2-7, 0-0) had given up 6+ runs in every game except two so far. So when the teams engaged in a pitchers duel, it was quite a surprise for both clubs.

3/8/10

Bowling Green: 3

Butler: 1

Box Score (Not Posted Yet)

Recap

Senior Kevin Leady led the Falcons, striking out eight on the day. Ross Gerdeman recorded his first ever save on the day and Bowling Green came through with a tough, gritty win for the first time all season.

Verdict?

This is the type of grind-it-out win BG has to come through with as the season progresses. No qualms here about the lack of offense because that hasn't been an issue at all this year, it's been the pitching and defense that's slowed BG down. Without the box score I can't say for sure, but the defense and pitching must of been superb today. Good win. Five game winning streak to end spring break here we come!