Falcons Spoil Chippewas' Home Opener With 4-0 Victory

Tuesday, March 22

Mount Pleasant, MI

3:05 PM EST

Bowling Green State University

8-13

Central Michigan

4-16

Bowling Green

Central Michigan

March 22, 2016 | Baseball

Box Score

By: by James Nahikian, BGSU Athletic Communications

Final Statistics: HTML | PDF

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – The Bowling Green State University baseball team snapped a seven-game losing streak by defeating the Central Michigan University Chippewas, 4-0, at Theunissen Stadium Tuesday (March 22) afternoon. The ballgame served as Central Michigan's home opener.

"This was a solid win for us heading into the start of MAC play this weekend," said head coach Danny Schmitz. "We got great efforts out of our three pitchers today, and we jumped out to an early lead. It was great to see Greg Basalyga hit a two-run home run."

The contest was a rematch of last Tuesday's (March 15) home opener at Steller Field. On that day, Bowling Green also jumped out to an early 4-0 lead, but couldn't hold on, as Central Michigan fought back for the 10-5 win. With today's victory, Bowling Green improves to 8-13 on the season.

Bowling Green took control of the game with a three-run third, highlighted by a Greg Basalyga two-run home run. After Riley Minorik worked a one-out walk, Cody Callaway doubled him over to third with a shot into left field. Matt Smith then scored Minorik with a sacrifice fly to right. Bowling Green's next batter, Basalyga, promptly launched his two-run bomb over the left-field fence.

The home run for the Falcons was their third on the season. Ironically, all three home runs have come against the Chippewas. Callaway and Minorik hit home runs in the March 15 loss to Central Michigan at Steller Field.

The Falcons tacked on another run in the fourth, as they loaded the bases before Callaway drew a walk that plated Minorik. Meanwhile, the Falcons' pitching staff was cruising.

Brad Croy got his first-career start in the Orange and Brown, and logged four innings of scoreless baseball. The right-hander allowed just two hits, while walking two batters and striking out one. He faced some trouble in the first and fourth, but was able to work out of each jam. Croy was awarded the win due to the fact that he was on a pitch count.

In the first, Croy walked two batters and a wild pitch moved both of them into scoring position, but a fly ball to center allowed Croy to escape. The freshman then worked two-consecutive perfect innings, before yielding back-to-back singles to open the fourth. Croy, however, set down the next three batters he faced to end his outing.

Croy gave way to right-hander Tyler Anderson. Anderson didn't allow a hit over his first two innings. He did allow a two-out single in the seventh, but struck out the very next better. Anderson then set down the first batter of the eighth, before being replaced by southpaw Kody Brown. In total, Anderson surrendered one hit over 3.1 innings. He fanned four, and walked one.

Brown went on to retire the first two batters he faced to move the game into the ninth. And after walking the leadoff batter in the final frame, Brown set down the next three batters to secure the win for the Falcons.

Nick Glanzman, who had a hot start through the first two weeks of the season, got back on track in the ballgame with a three-hit effort. Glanzman went 3-for-4 with a run scored. Justin Mott was the other Falcon with multiple hits, as he went 2-for-4. Bowling Green out-hit Central Michigan, 9-3.

The Orange and Brown will open Mid-American Conference play this weekend at Eastern Michigan. The Falcons and Eagles will start the series with a 6 p.m. first pitch on Friday. Saturday's game will start at 3 p.m., with the series finale on Sunday slated for 1 p.m.