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.

Falcon Softball Finish 3-2 at Adidas Invitational

Falcon Softball finished 3-2 this past weekend at the Adidas Invitational in Rock Hill, South Carolina.

The Falcon’s started of the tournament with a double header against Winthrop University and Campbell University, earning a split with a loss and victory respectively.

Hitting was a key part of the Falcon’s game against Winthrop despite losing a close game 9-8. Junior Andrea Arney led the team going 3-for-4 with two home runs earning six RBI’s. Hannah Fulk also homered in the game and went 2-for-3 with two RBI’s.

The team showed resilience as they went into the third down 5-1. Arney got hot, hit a home-run and brought in three runs to bring the score to 5-4.

Despite Arney’s hitting, the Eagles scored four more runs to bring the total to 9-4 needing the Falcon’s to come from behind. Arney hit another home run yet it wasn’t enough as the Falcon’s ended the game a run short with a score of 9-8.

Friday afternoon saw the team play Campbell University where the Falcon’s retaliated and won 4-0.

“I am proud of the way the team played game two,” said head coach Shannon Salsburg. “Jamie set the tone on the mound and the team responded with solid defense and clutch hitting.”

Freshman Jamie Kertes earned the shutout on the mound and the victory.

Saturday the Falcon’s again played a double header, this time against Gardner Webb and Albany. The team swept the day winning both games 8-0 and 3-2 respectively.

Junior Paige Berger set the tone against Gardner Webb, going 3-for-4 with two doubles, while Katie Yoho went 2-for-2 with a single and a home run. This marks the second shutout of the tournament and the fourth put on by the Falcon’s this year.

Albany was a closer game with the Falcon’s scoring all three runs in the first inning thanks to a Yoho three-run hit giving the Falcon’s an early 3-0 lead.

Albany would respond with two of their own runs thanks to a strong performance from pitchers Paige Imholz and Kertes.

The Falcon’s concluded the tournament Sunday with a loss to St. Johns 3-2. Again Kerney lead the Falcon’s offensively with a home run and RBI to give the Falcon’s their only two runs, while the Red Storm scored all their runs early in the first.

The Falcon’s (10-7) will return to Bowling Green before heading to Farifax, Virginia this weekend to partake in the Red Blossom Classic.

Softball Heads to South Carolina for Adidas Invitational

With Katie Yoho having been named the Papa Johns Player of the Week last week, the Falcon's will travel to Rock Hill, South Carolina for their tournament this Friday.
The Adidas Invitational being held at Winthrop University will see the Falcon's play 5 games that will test their 7-5 record this season.
First up the Falcon's will play the host team, Winthrop, followed by Campbell University Friday afternoon.
Saturday will feature a Gardner Webb and Albany double-header for the Falcon's and Sunday will bring a game against St. Johns university.
Having yet to play a home game, the Falcon's have done well being constantly on the road. Bringing impressive hitting and a young, but talented pitching squad, the Falcon's have been able to go toe-to-toe with every opponent they've faced. Paige Berger, Hannah Fulk, and Yoho all have demonstrated leadership at the plate, while the freshmen Paris Imholz and Jamie Kertes have done well joining Jessica Odell and Erin Greenwalt on the mound.
Defense will be key in the Falcon's performance this weekend.

Temple to leave the Mid-American Conference

UPDATE, MARCH 9: According to a MAC press release, BG will move back to East Division for football. The Falcons were to move to the West Division for the 2012 season to accommodate Umass' move to the MAC. With Temple leaving for the Big East, that accommodation will no longer be necessary.

“Temple University requested to be released from its obligation, as a football-only member of providing two season’s prior notice before departing the Mid-American Conference," MAC commissioner Jon Steinbrecher said in the release. "As a result the Conference and its member institutions engaged in a dialogue with Temple regarding an appropriate resolution. We have come to an agreement that is fair to the parties involved.”

“As a result, the Mid-American Conference has adjusted its football divisional alignment. Bowling Green State University will compete in the East Division that will consist of seven member institutions. The West Division will have six members. The eight-game Conference schedule should be released within several weeks.”

Temple negotiated a $6 million with the MAC. Since the season is still months from starting, nothing changes from BG's standpoint.

ORIGINAL POST: The Temple Owls, which has been a football-only member of the Mid-American Conference since 2005, will reportedly leave the conference to compete in the Big East, effective for the 2012 season, according to the Associated Press.

All other Temple sports compete in the Atlantic-10 conference.

The Owls competed in the East Division, and their departure will once again leave the MAC at 13 football members — six in the East, seven in the West.

During the season, it was announced that Massachusetts-Amhurst will join the MAC as a football-only school in 2012 in order to give the conference 14 football teams, thus evening out the divisions.

As part of this addition, BG was relocated to the West Division. The Falcons originally competed in the West in 2002 and 2003, but have been in the East since the 2004 season.

It is unclear whether the Falcons will remain in the West Division, or return to the East Division, where they compete in men's and women's basketball.

Falcons split pair of games

The BG baseball team picked up a dramatic 4-3 win against Georgetown, and followed that up with a clunker against Penn, a 13-2 loss.

Against the Hoyas, BG scored two runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to go ahead and eventually win. A pair of two out singles — one by Andrew Kubuski and one by Brian Bien — did the damage for BG.

Andrew Lacinak started for BG and went five strong innings, allowing two runs — one earned — on four hits and two walks.

BG's offense and defense failed them against Penn. The Falcons had only six hits and committed four errors, leading to six unearned runs.

T.J. Losby had both RBI for the Falcons.

Five games into the tournament, BG is 2-3, and 3-8 on the season. The Falcons have an off day Wednesday, and will return to action Thursday against Yale.

Yoho Named Athlete of the Week as Falcon's Finish Positve

Katie Yoho was named Papa Johns player of the week for her performances for the Falcon's softball team at the Under Armour Invitational.
Yoho went 8-16 and added two home-runs for the Falcon's during their time in Clearwater, Florida. Yoho also added 4 RBIs and scored three runs herself.
With Yoho's impressive hitting the Falcon's finished out their tournament by beating St. Francis for a second tome on Sunday, by a score of 4-2.
The Falcon's finished 3-2 with losses coming from Quinnipiac University and Florida Gulf Coast University. The team beat St. Francis twice and had an impressive come-from-behind game against Bethune-Cookman.
Strong hitting once again drove the Falcon's to their victories, and their pitching depth also contributed. All pitchers were used several times as the Falcon's managed to keep hitters out of sync.
This Invitational brings the Falcon's to a 7-5 record this season, and allowed Yoho to pass Paige Berger in the season home-run total.

Game Three: BG @ Northern

Game three started off differently than the previous two games because there was no score in the first period. Northern Michigan held the advantage in shots 9-5 and both teams went 0-3 on power-play chances.

The Wildcats broke through first just under five minutes into the second period. Mitch Jones received a pass and fired a wrsit shot past Hammond that barely snuck in under the crossbar.

The Falcons responded as Dan DeSalvo held the puck after a Wildcats turnover and he rushed in on goalie Jared Coreau. DeSalvo whizzed the puck past him to tie the game 1-1 in the second period.

Just a little over two minutes later BG struck again as Adam Berkle broke through Northern's defense on a breakaway and he missed his initial shot, but DeSalvo was there to clean up the rebound and put it home for his second goal of the night and the go-ahead goal 2-1.

A little later after that goal, Berkle created offense again. He threw a shot at Coreau, which again he let up a huge rebound, but this time Berkle finished what he started and put the puck in the back of the net for the Falcons third straight goal. The score was 3-1 Falcons heading into the third period.

In the third period Northern tried to get to Hammond, but he was solid and the defense cleared many of the rebound chances. BG scored again as Ryan Viselli scored on a pass from Ryan Carpenter to make the final score 4-1 in favor of the Falcons.

This is the second straight year the Falcons advance in the playoffs as the #11 seed. Also the second straight year they fell behind 1-0 to Northern Michigan and then beat them with two straight wins.

Berkle led the Falcons in points in the series with seven (2 goals, 5 assists) and DeSalvo scored 5 goals and recorded one assist in the series. He scored only four goals the whole regular season.

It doesn't get any easier as the Falcons now travel to top ranked Ferris State in the second round of the CCHA playoffs. They were 0-4 against the Bulldogs this season.