Sunday, May 16, 2010

BGSU Baseball at Kent State - Game 3

1:03 p.m. - Welcome everybody to today's blog... something new I'm trying as I multi-task with the live blog on another page, but what the heck. First pitch has come and gone for today's game (starting lineups to come in the next post) and Meisler is aboard with a leadoff walk.

Starting Lineups:

For Kent State (31-21, 15-8)... Humphries, CF Klafczynski, RF Gallas, LF Shaw, 3B McMillen, 1B Lyon, DH Rider, SS Campbell, 2B Hindel, C

For Bowling Green (24-21-1, 14-9).... Meisler, 2B Blanton, CF Vaughn, LF Spencer, 3B Berti, SS Galvin, RF Duncan, 1B Pitzulo, DH Schalter, C
Sunday May 16, 2010 12:51

1:08 p.m. - After Miesler's walk, he reached second stealing on a hit and run... he reached second base avoiding the tag on the fielded ball by the KSU shortstop, while Vaughn was retired at first for the second out, but with a runner in scoring position Derek Spencer struck out for the third out of the inning. Bowling Green is looking like they want to hit the cover off of the ball, but so far KSU starting pitcher Kyle Hallock has 2 Ks on the day.

Kevin Leady (6-2, 4.35) is getting the start for the Falcons today as we head into the bottom of the first, 0-0.

1:13 p.m. - Kevin Leady mows down the Golden Flashes in their first at-bat and got some phenomenal help from left fielder Dennis Vaughn. On a Ben Klafczynski fly ball that kept trailing toward the left field corner, Vaughn climbed the ladder and made a leaping catch at the wall for the second out. Leady then forced KSU standout Anthony Gallas to strike out on a check swing from some nasty off-speed, breaking stuff. 0-0 after 1!

1:25 p.m. - You have to love "Danny Schmitz-ball... aka 'small ball'... Jon Berti draws a walk, is sacrificed to second base and then steals third JUST before Clay Duncan hits a sacrifice fly to score Berti from third. Time and time again it works! The Falcons continued to threaten with a two-out double from freshman sensation Matthew Pitzulo, but the Brown and Orange could not drive him home. Falcons take an early lead, 1-0, and the momentum currently resides with the Falcons... Kevin Leady (easily the most animated player on this team) will do his part to make sure it stays that way!

1:34 p.m. - Each team is sharing its displeasure with the strike zone with the home plate umpire. BGSU is far more verbal, and for good reason. The strike zone looks to be the size of a Post-It note today. Kent State ties the game on a pair of timely base hits and after two, we are all nodded up at one.

1:54 p.m. - Throughout the day you may hear about a "Baseball Retrieving Black Lab"... it is my "distraction of the day" which you'll hear more about later.

BG in the top of the third puts runners on but cannot bring them around... Kent State on the other hand put runners on second and third and a Gallas singled to right to score one run (2-1). A muff by Berti on a tailor-made, inning-ending double play, gets one but not the second and another run scores in the meantime... 3-1 KSU after three.

2:03 p.m. - BGSU threatens once again, putting runners on second and third following two walks but Logan Meisler's hard hit doesn't get past the KSU first baseman and the side is retired with two left one. 3-1, going into the bottom of the fourth.

2:06 p.m. - One-two-three go the Flashes. Bowling Green sported some nice defense in that frame. First from Jon Berti who fielded a ground ball deep in the hole at short. He backhanded the play and threw off his back foot in time to get a "fleet-footed" David Lyon. Then Kevin Leady fields his own position with a sharp comebacker that he stabbed off of the turf and threw to first to end the inning. Lets see if Blanton, Vaughn and Spencer can get it done with the bats now...

sidenote: the Famous Black Lab Baseball Retreiver now has competition. A little boy has beaten the dog to a foul ball once in the last inning and now a second dog has entered his territory to get in the game.

2:23 p.m. - Falcons again get runners on, but not around. Leady responds with another 1-2-3 inning and we are still at 3-1 after five innings.

another sidenote: Another foul ball landed out of play. The famous Black Lab and a little boy converged on the ball. At first, the little kid conceded the ball to the dog after the it looked like it was on a mission to get it. But after the dog overran the ball, the little kid swooped in a got the it! I'm starting to believe this famous dog is a bit overrated as I've now seen him get beat twice by his human opponent.

2:28 p.m. - Kyle Hallock's day is done, but maybe they shouldn't have pulled him. Into the game for the Flashes is Ryan Mace. He allowed a deep deep deep deep double to right field off the wall to get the scoring started. Schlater pounds a hard hit to first which was knocked down but had no play on the ball, leaving runners at the corners. Meisler gets the clutch run-scoring hit to get the Falcons within one... another pitching change for the Flashes... STAY TUNED!

2:43 p.m. - WOW WHAT AN INNING! Five runs for the Falcons in the top of the sixth!!! Pitzulo starts the inning off with a deep double off the right field wall. Schlater plucks a single into the OF putting runners on the corners. Meisler then put a single into right, scoring one (3-2). After their second pitching change of the inning, the Falcons continued to ROLL ALONG! Schalter scored on Blanton's single, followed by a second RBI single by Dennis Vaughn to take the lead (4-3). An error in the field by KSU would have ended the Falcon inning, but Evan Campbell at second threw a shirt throw under the glove of McMillen at first. Blanton was on his horse and hustling the whole way around the bases and scored from second on the play. The five-spot gives the Falcons a 6-3 lead going into the bottom of the sixth.

2:46 p.m. - Leady's streak of consecutive batters retired ended at NINE on a single up the middle by McMillen. Oh well... he still got the next batter for the third out and takes a 6-3 Falcon lead into the seventh inning!

2:5 p.m. - Leady is on a roll... Falcons go 1-2-3 in their half of the seventh and Leady returns the favor. Flashes go 1-2-3 with the 7-8-9 hitters. Still 6-3 FALCONS!

3:00 p.m. - Falcons had a runner after Meisler went opposite field with a single but Blanton popped a bunt into the air. It was fielded and thrown to first to double up Meisler at first. Vaughn followed with a fly ball to center field to end the inning. Same score as we head to the bottom of the 8th.

3:12 p.m. - KSU puts two on the board before Kevin Leady records an out... Patrick O'Brien comes in and shuts down KSU's 4-5-6 hitters!! 6-5 Falcons... its tight but the plot only thickens as the game grows older!

3:22 p.m. - BGSU is not happy about that two-spot KSU put up. So what do they do? They answer by scoring a run and knocking out their newest reliever. Clay Duncan blasted a double into the left center field gap, scoring Jon Berti. New pitcher (victim)... Brennan Glass, who pitched in Friday's game. Stay tuned...

3:28 p.m. - The Falcons loaded the bases and scored on a wild pitch from Glass. After that, Bowling Green goes down but adds two to their lead and is back up on top by 3 going into the bottom of the 9th... last ups for KSU

4:13 p.m. - My apologies for not updating this blog quicker but when the game ended, we had some comotion up in the pressbox and requests coming from all directions, so the blog kind of got lost in the shuffle. The long and short of it, Patrick O'Brien went 3 up, 3 down in the bottom of the ninth to complete the win for Bowling Green! 8-5 final and the Falcons take back a share of the lead in the MAC East!!!

More details will come in the game recap that will be published on BGSUFalcons.com.

Thanks for following along... hopefully we'll do something like this for other critical games this season leading into the MAC Tournament.

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