Bowling Green’s baseball team moved one step closer to its second consecutive Mid-American Conference
East Division and overall championships Thursday.
The Falcons pounded out 19 hits and scored twice in the last of the fifth to break a 6-6 tie en route to
a 14-9 victory over Akron at Steller Field.
BG, 27-19 overall and the MAC East leader at 17-7, can clinch both championships by beating Akron again
today or Saturday. Both games start at 1 p.m. Akron is 18-32, 11-14.
Ohio is second in the East at 16-9, followed by Kent State (15-9) and Miami (15-10). Miami was a 14-3
winner at Kent, while Ohio was a 6-5 winner in 11 innings at home against Buffalo (6-18).
Ball State leads the West at 13-10.
"This is another step forward, but we still have a lot of work ahead of us," BG coach Danny
Schmitz said.
BG – which trailed 3-0 in the first inning and 5-2 in the third inning – went ahead for good in the fifth
on Logan Meisler’s leadoff home run. The Falcons’ other run in the inning came on singles by Dennis
Vaughn and Mark Galvin, and Ryan Schlater’s RBI double.
The Falcons then broke the game open with a five-run seventh.
Vaughn’s leadoff homer made it 9-6 and BG scored four more times later in the inning.
Brian Hangbers hit a two-run single, and Meisler and Derek Spencer added RBI singles later in the inning.
Schlater and Vaughn each had four hits and three RBI, and they combined to score five runs.
Meisler added three hits and three RBI, while Hangbers and Ryan Shay each had two hits, with Hangbers
also picking up two RBI.
The Falcons entered the game first in the MAC and 12th in the NCAA with a .349 batting average. BG’s had
10 or more hits in 30 of its last 35 games.
"Our bats pulled us through again," Schmitz said. "Our guys kept battling."
BG pitchers Brennan Smith, Charles Wooten and Kacy Dwornik combined for 15 strikeouts.
Wooten was the winning pitcher in relief, with Dwornik earning a save. Dwornik pitched the final two
innings, allowing no runs on one hit with three strikeouts and no walks.
BG freshman Jon Berti did not get a hit in four at-bats ending his 14-game hitting streak, and an 11-game
hitting streak in league games.
