AVON, Ohio — A season full of records, wins, and excitement within the Bowling Green State University baseball community came to a tough end on Saturday.
Top-seeded BGSU couldn’t maintain its strong start, and No. 3 Ball State did all of its damage offensively in the final six innings as the Cardinals doubled up the Falcons 10-5 in an elimination game in the Mid-American Conference tournament at Crushers Stadium in Avon.
(Video credit: Mid-American Conference)
BGSU, which won the MAC regular-season title with a program-record 24 wins that included a league-record 17-0 start, finished the season 33-20 after reaching its first MAC tournament since 2015 and first semifinal since 2013.
“I think it was representative by our fans, really. Them saying ‘BGSU’ [after the game], we had the best crowd of anyone here,” BGSU coach Kyle Hallock said. “We talked about, the program was brought back on June 3, 2020, but these guys brought it all the way back.
“Now, it’s back to where it should be, and we’re looking forward to playing from the top of the league now and understanding what it’s going to take next preseason to maintain what these seniors left us and what these freshmen inherited.”
Ball State avenged a three-game BGSU sweep over the Cardinals during the regular season that included a 34-8 loss to the Falcons on March 16.
Later Saturday, Western Michigan defeated Ball State 10-3 to win the tournament championship.
“Bowling Green had a tremendous season. Those guys were outstanding, dominated the league, and dominated us at home,” Ball State coach Rich Maloney said. “We were very fortunate to get this win today, I’m proud of our guys.
“[BGSU] embarrassed us back at our place. They whipped us, so this was on our calendar to have a chance. We were hoping we’d get a shot at them, and we did, and the guys delivered.”
Everything went BGSU’s way the first three innings as starting pitcher and Archbold High School graduate Rigo Ramos didn’t allow a hit while racking up five strikeouts. Freshman T.J. Takats, a Perrysburg graduate, put the Falcons on the board after blasting the first pitch he saw from Ball State’s Will Jacobson over the right field fence for a grand slam to make it 4-0 BGSU with two outs in the second inning.
“I was looking fastball first pitch, and I got my foot down early and he hung a slider. From there, I just let it fly and the rest is history,” Takats said.
Nathan Archer skied a solo home run to right field to lead off the eighth inning. It was the junior standout’s 18th home run of the season (tied for third in program history) and 35th of his career (fourth).
Between then, however, BGSU’s offense struggled in registering just four other hits. Sam Klein earned the win in relief after allowing one run on three hits in five innings; Jacobson tossed the first four innings, and the duo combined for nine strikeouts and five walks.
“They pitched us really well, and kind of that back third of the season, we got pitched really tough,” Hallock said. “People started landing off-speed pitches in good spots in the zone, and we took good swings. We just didn’t find the barrel as much as we normally have, and that’s it.”
Added Takats: “I think they just kept us off balanced really well. Those two pitchers, they did their job, located well, and obviously, we didn’t hit today like we have all year. Hat’s off to them.”
Ball State racked up 16 hits in the final six innings. Five players had multiple hits, including Nick Husovsky, who hit a two-run home run in the seventh inning and smacked a two-run single in the fourth.
Decker Scheffler had two hits, including a two-run single in the fourth inning, while Matthew Gonzalez had a double among his four hits with an RBI. Blake Bevis doubled, singled twice, and drove in a run.
Ramos took his first loss of the season after allowing five runs (three earned) on four hits in 3⅔ innings, with six strikeouts and three walks.
Most Popular
Comments / 0