BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – It took extra innings, but the Western Michigan baseball team dropped the series opener against Bowling Green Friday afternoon, as the Falcons came away with a 4-3 win in 10 innings at Steller Field.
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In the bottom of the 10th, the Falcons got a leadoff double, moved the runner up on a sacrifice and used a walkoff single to center field to score the game-winning run.
The game went four and a half scoreless innings until Bowling Green finally broke through with a run in the bottom of the fifth on WMU starter Jacob Piechota, taking a 1-0 lead. WMU quickly answered, scoring a run in the top of the sixth inning thanks to a Grant Miller RBI groundout to score Connor Smith, who reached on a leadoff triple.
The Falcons came right back to grab a lead in the bottom of the sixth, scoring one run on two hits, a walk and a hit batsman. The Brown & Gold grabbed its first lead of the game in the bottom of the seventh inning, scoring a pair of runs on three hits. Nick Vogelmeier led the inning off with a single up the middle and Jesse Forestell followed that with a single to left field. After a sacrifice, Tyler Frank delivered WMU's biggest hit of the game, a two-run triple to right center field, his first triple of the season. It gave WMU a 3-2 lead until the bottom of the eighth inning when the Falcons scored a run to tie it up 3-3, leading to the extra innings win for Bowling Green.
The bottom half of the lineup did most of the damage for the Broncos, as both Vogelmeier and Forestell went 2-for-4 with a run. Smith went 1-for-4 with a run and a triple while Frank had the big two-run triple in the seventh.
WMU used three pitchers in the game, as Piechota got the start and went 4.2 innings allowing one run on six hits and one walk with two strikeouts. Kyle Mallwitz gave up a run in an inning and Nic Laio suffered the loss, pitching the final 3.2 innings allowing two runs with four strikeouts. This was the fifth time in the last six games the pitcher staff held its opponent to four runs or less in conference games.
The Broncos and Falcons will do battle twice more this weekend, first on Saturday, May 13 at 1 p.m. and second in the series finale on Sunday, May 14 at 1 p.m.
