BG baseball hosts Dayton

Following a 2-6 spring break trip to Florida, the BG baseball team will finally play on its home field.

The Falcons will take on Dayton today at 3 p.m. at Warren Stellar Field. It is the home opener for the Falcons, who are already 14 games into the season with a 3-11 record.

The Falcons’ pitching has struggled this season, particularly of late. BG has allowed double-digit runs in three of its last four games. The Falcons have lost all four of those games.

Jason Link leads BG with a 1.59 earned-run average coming out of the bullpen in six appearances. However, the Falcons have gotten little production from their starting rotation.

Among pitchers who have mades starts for BG this year, Andrew Lacinak leads the team with a 4.91 earned-run average. The four other pitchers who have started games for BG this year — Cody Apthorpe, Matt Malewitz, Ethan McKenney and Patrick Martin — all have earned-run averages greater than 6.14.

Offensively, the Falcons have struggled with the long ball, hitting two home runs this season — one by T.J. Losby and one by Matt Vannett. However, the Falcons are hitting a strong .291 as a team.

Leading the team in batting average is outfielder Jake Thomas, who has emerged as an unlikely presence at the top of the Falcons’ lineup. Through 10 games — eight starts — Thomas is hitting .400 with seven RBI and five runs scored.

The Falcons have received strong production from their outfield in general, with Andrew Kubuski and Patrick Lancaster each having batting averages greater than .300.

Two areas that have plauged the Falcons the most is on the basepaths and in the field. BG is only 6-for-14 on stolen bases. The Falcons have also committed 36 errors in 14 games after committing only 55 errors in 51 games last season.

Those errors have caused the Falcons to allow 23 unearned runs this season. This season, 24 percent of the runs the Falcons have allowed have been unearned.