Falcons Score One In The Ninth To Take 5-4 Thriller At Ohio

Sunday, May 7

Athens, OH

1:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

12-30, 7-14

Ohio

22-24, 8-10

Bowling Green

Ohio

May 07, 2017 | Baseball

Box Score

By: by James Nahikian, BGSU Athletic Communications

Final Statistics: PDF | HTML

ATHENS, Ohio – The Bowling Green State University baseball team, after allowing the tying run in the bottom of the eighth, scored one in the ninth to beat Ohio University in thrilling fashion on Sunday (May 7) afternoon by a score of 5-4. The ballgame was played at OU's Bob Wren Stadium. The Falcons evened their MAC win total from last season with the victory.

The Falcons are still alive for a MAC Tournament berth heading into their final conference weekend of the season. Tournament scenarios will be covered over the remaining weeks as more results unfold. BGSU is the only team not scheduled to play a conference series across the final weekend of the regular season.

With the win, Bowling Green improves to 12-30 overall, and 7-14 in Mid-American Conference play. Ohio, with the crushing defeat, falls to 22-24 (8-10 MAC).

"What a character win for our team," said head coach Danny Schmitz. "We were really playing with our season on the line, and they score the tying run in the eighth on a play where we probably felt we made the play, but we don't sulk, and come right out the next half inning and score the winning run. We never gave up today, and played for our lives. We'll need to have this mindset the rest of the season."

Bowling Green led, 4-2, heading into the bottom of the eighth inning. After a single and an error, the Bobcats had runners at the corners with no outs. The Bobcats squeezed home a run, putting the tying run on second with one out. The Bobcats then tied the game in controversial fashion.

The Ohio batter singled to right field, and Jeff Scott fired a seed to home plate. The throw beat the runner by a good margin, but the umpire ruled that the runner slid around Justin Mott's tag to tie the game at 4-4. Kody Brown eventually left the go-ahead run on second base, keeping the score tied heading to the ninth.

However, the Falcons stormed right back, scoring the winning run in the top of the ninth. Joe McGuinness started things off with a single to right field. Mott laid down a sacrifice bunt, moving pinch runner Ty Suntken into scoring position with one out.

Scott moved Suntken over to third with a ground out, and then Suntken scored on a passed ball with two outs to give Bowling Green a 5-4 lead.

Blake Jenkins came on as a defensive replacement in left field in the eighth, and ending up making a potential game-saving play to start the bottom of the ninth. MAC Player of the Year candidate Spencer Ibarra crushed a ball into the left-center field gap, however, with the ball tailing away from Jenkins, the sophomore reached out and made an incredible catch to prevent at least a leadoff double. Brown locked down his first win of the season by retiring the next two batters.

Bowling Green took a quick 2-0 lead in the first. Derek Drewes singled home the first run of the game, and then Randy Righter beat out a double play. After two Ohio runs in the third, Greg Basalyga launched a deep home run to left-center to give the Falcons a 3-2. The home run was his team-leading sixth of the season.

Scott added a huge insurance run in the seventh, as he doubled with two outs, scoring Mott from first. On his birthday, Riley Minorik went 2-for-4 with a run. Drewes and McGuinness each went 2-for-4, as well.

Chase Antle got the start for the Orange and Brown. He was in line for the victory before Ohio's two-run eighth. Antle went 5.0 innings, allowing three hits and two runs while striking out two batters and walking three. Over his last 15.0 innings, he's allowed just three runs while striking out 17 batters. With his effort, he lowered his ERA to 3.96 on the season.

Nathan Lohmeier logged 2.0 scoreless innings in relief of Antle. He surrendered two hits, did not issue a walk, and fanned two. Brown allowed just one hit over 2.0 innings en route to the win.

Bowling Green travels to Columbus on Tuesday (May 9) to take on the Buckeyes of Ohio State at 6:35 p.m. The Falcons will then wrap up MAC play by hosting Western Michigan across May 12-14.