The Bowling Green State University baseball team came up short against the Western Michigan Broncos on Saturday in a game that turned into a relief pitcher’s duel, ending with a 6-4 final at Steller Field
For the Falcons, Luke Krouse commanded 4.2 innings out of the bullpen, the longest outing of his career and a shutout performance. The loss drops BGSU to 19-4 on the season while being 26-16 overall on the season with the rubber match set for Sunday (May 5) at 1 p.m.
Western Michigan scored in the first for a 1-0 lead. Landon Willeman worked out a bases loaded jam to limit the damage.
The Broncos added three in the second to push the score to 4-0.
Bowling Green answered in the bottom of the second. TJ Takats was hit by a pitch to begin the inning. A walk to Landon Roque and a dribbler in front of the pitcher from Gavin Ganun put two in scoring position for the Falcons. Caden Parker delivered a single to right field, scoring Takats.
Next up, Nathan Archer sent a fly ball to deep center, scoring Roque from third after he advanced on Parker’s hit.
Garrett Wright followed with a drive off the left field wall, legging out a double and scoring Parker from first.
The rally continued with Tyler Ross knocking an infield single. An error on the play allowed Wright to score from second, tying the game up at 4-4 through two.
WMU added two in the top of the fifth to move ahead 6-4. Krouse bounced back in the top of the sixth, sending the Broncos down in order on 11 pitches.
Archer logged a sacrifice fly in the second inning to plate his 57th RBI of the season. Archer is now tied for seventh all-time in single-season RBI in program history with Andy Hudak (2002) and Larry Arndt (1985).
Leighton Banjoff singled in the fifth inning to push his on-base streak to 19 games for Bowling Green and his hitting streak to five.
Wright stretched his on-base streak to 11 for the Falcons, logging a hit in the bottom of the second with a double off the wall.
With a two-hit game, Ross has now logged a hit in 10 of his last 12 games and has reached base in 11 of the 12.
The Falcons and Broncos will conclude their series on Sunday with a 1 p.m. first pitch. BGSU will then be on the road for their next five games.
