The University of Akron Athletics
Baseball Looking to Keep Season Alive Against Falcons
May 14 | Baseball
AKRON ZIPS (25-21, 8-10 MAC) vs. BOWLING GREEN FALCONS (28-18, 13-8 MAC)
Lee Jackson Field (1,500) • Akron, Ohio
THE FIRST PITCH
The University of Akron baseball team (25-21, 8-10) will make
its final postseason push with a three-game series against Bowling
Green at Lee Jackson Field. The last weekend of the regular season
gets underway Thursday at 3 p.m.
THURSDAY, MAY 15 – 3 P.M. (EST)
Probable Starting Pitchers:
UA RHP Frank
Turocy (6-2, 3.89)
BGSU RHP Frank Berry (5-1, 5.01)
• Turocy is coming off his first complete-game victory of the
season after going the distance in UA's 15-7 victory over Kent
State last Friday at Lee Jackson Field. His six wins are a career
high and fourth in the MAC. Turocy, who is 11-11 with a 4.88 ERA in
211.1 career innings at Akron, is 1-0 with a 3.21 ERA in a pair of
starts (14.0 IP) against the Falcons.
FRIDAY, MAY 16 – 1 P.M. (EST)
Probable Starting Pitchers:
UA RHP Tom
Farmer (3-3, 5.94)
BGSU LHP Kevin Light (4-3, 5.10)
• Farmer is scheduled to make his second start of the season
and just his third since 2006 Friday. The fourth-year junior was a
20th-round draft pick of the Minnesota Twins last spring and posted
87 strikeouts in 80.2 innings in his last full season as a starter.
Farmer, who is 9-16 with an ERA of 5.60 in 189.2 career innings at
Akron, is 1-1 with a 4.02 ERA in a pair of starts against BGSU.
SATURDAY, MAY 17 – 1 P.M. (EST)
Probable Starting Pitchers:
UA TBA
BGSU RHP Kevin Leady (3-4, 4.93)
ON THE WEB
Live stats will be available for all three games on
GoZips.com.
ON THE RADIO
All three games of the series will be simulcast live
locally on Sports Radio 1350 AM (WARF) and GoZips.com as part of
the Zips Zone subscription package. Bill Morgan, who is in his
second season broadcasting Akron baseball, will have the call.
SERIES NOTES
Akron trails the all-time series with the Falcons, 22-29
... BGSU and UA split the first two games of their series in
Bowling Green last season before the Zips rallied back from
deficits of 7-0 and 14-5 only to fall 16-15 in the ninth inning of
the finale ... The Zips took two of three from the Falcons in their
last meeting at Lee Jackson Field in 2006 ... UA defeated BGSU 3-0
in the schools' only meeting in the MAC Tournament in 2005.
ZIPS RESET
Akron slipped into fourth place in the MAC East after a
1-2 last weekend against division-leader Kent State at Lee Jackson
Field. The Zips toppled the Golden Flashes 15-7 in the series
opener but was out-scored, 30-7, the rest of the way. The series
defeat, coupled with Ohio University's three-game sweep of Miami,
clouded UA's playoff picture as the Zips' will need to at least
take two of three from the Falcons this weekend to regain third
place in the division with the top three teams earning a playoff
berth.
Akron will also have a chance to claim one of the two wild card
berths with a strong showing this weekend and some help from the
West Division.
After allowing 37 runs in three games against KSU, UA pitchers
responded positively in a 4-2 victory at Pittsburgh Tuesday night
in a prep game for its final push. Five Akron pitchers combined to
hold the Panthers to just two unearned runs in the Zips' final road
game of the spring.
PLAYOFF PICTURE
UA can leapfrog Ohio University, which plays a three-game
series at Buffalo, to claim third place in the East and its first
playoff berth since 2005 this weekend one of two ways: (1) The Zips
sweep Bowling Green and Ohio loses at least one game to the Bulls
or (2) The Zips take two of three from Bowling Green and Ohio is
swept by the Bulls.
The wild card picture is much more complicated for UA. By being
swept last weekend, Buffalo and Miami have been mathematically
eliminated from postseason play leaving six teams – Ball State
(11-9 MAC), Western Michigan (11-10), Ohio (12-12), Central
Michigan (11-12), Akron (8-10) and Toledo (8-12) – with
playoff hopes intact.
One of the West teams – Ball State, Western Michigan, Central
Michigan and Toledo – will claim the third and final slot in
the division to qualify, which leaves UA to battle the remaining
teams in a three-way battle for the wild card.
MAC TOURNAMENT TO BE HELD IN CHILLICOTHE
For the first time since 1982, and for only the second
time in league history, the MAC baseball tournament will be held at
a neutral site when this year's event is staged at VA Memorial
Stadium in Chillicothe, Ohio.
The tournament field has also been expanded to eight teams for the
first time ever. The prior tournament field consisted of six teams
in a double-elimination tournament. The new format will feature a
bracket of two pools, with the winner of each double-elimination
pool meeting in a one-game, winner take all championship game. The
bracketing reflects the College World Series format as played in
Omaha.
The top three teams from each division will qualify for postseason
play. The two remaining bids will be granted to the teams with the
next-best winning percentages in league play regardless of
division.
SENIOR SPOTLIGHT
The University of Akron baseball program will recognize
its three seniors, Vince
Chiera, Kurt
Davidson and Doug
McNulty, prior to the start of Friday's 1 o'clock game.
• Chiera has been a mainstay at the hot corner since stepping
onto the field as a freshman in 2005. Of his 178 career starts, 167
have been as the Zips starting third baseman. Not only has the
local product has developed into one of the premier defensive
players in the MAC, Chiera enters play as the second-hardest player
to strike out in the nation with just five punch outs in 161
at-bats.
For his career, Chiera has fanned just 34 times in 665 at-bats or
5.1 percent of the time. In his three-plus seasons in an Akron
uniform, the former Walsh Jesuit standout has posted a batting
average of .287 (191-for-665), 29 doubles, 103 runs and 95 RBI in
175 career games.
• It goes without saying that Davidson will be long remembered
as one of the best hitters in the history of the Akron program when
this season comes to a close. Davidson, who set the school's
all-time home run record last spring, broke UA records for most
RBI, total bases and at-bats in a career this year and enters the
series having posted the second-highest hit total (246) in Zips
history. Davidson, a two-time all-conference catcher, became just
the third player in school history and the first since 1997 to earn
All-Mideast Region honors last spring and holds the esteemed
distinction of having started every game of his college career.
Davidson, who played his high school ball at nearby North Canton
Hoover High School, has posted a career batting average of .311
(246-for-792), 148 runs scored, 51 doubles, 39 home runs and 177
RBI in 198 career contests.
• McNulty has gotten better in each season after redshirting
as a freshman in 2004. This has been especially true the last two
years as the slugger has developed into one of the best hitters in
the MAC. As an All-MAC second teamer last spring, McNulty led the
Zips with a .356 batting average before becoming one of the premier
power hitters in the circuit this season having nearly tripled his
previous season high with 11 round-trippers in 46 games in 2008.
During his Akron career, the 6-foot, 4-inch senior has twice shown
the flair for the dramatic in historic proportions. McNulty became
the first player in UA history to hit for the cycle, including a
walk-off grand slam, in a come-from-behind victory against Bowling
Green on Apr. 21 2006 at Lee Jackson Field then broke the school's
single-game record with three home runs against Kent State in the
Diamond Classic for Kids on Apr. 16, 2008 at Canal Park.
McNulty, who graduated from Homer-Center High School in Homer City,
Pa., has posted a career batting average of .312 (227-for-728), 138
runs scored, 47 doubles, 22 home runs and 122 RBI in 188 career
games – including 181 starts.
FALCONS SCOUTING REPORT
Bowling Green (28-18, 13-7 MAC) comes to Lee Jackson Field
having won its last eight games and 11 of its last 13 overall. The
Falcons haven't lost a league game since Apr. 27 after sweeps of
Buffalo at home and at Ohio. BGSU trails Kent State for first place
by one full game in the MAC East.
The Falcons are the top-hitting team in the league with a team
batting average of .319 and are ranked sixth in pitching (5.70 ERA)
and fifth in fielding (.958). Junior Ryan Shay leads the MAC with a
.410 (75-for-183) batting average.
SERIES STORYLINES
• The Zips and Falcons split the first two games of
their three-game series in Bowling Green last year with BGSU taking
the opener 3-0 and UA bouncing back for a 7-3 victory in game two.
Frank
Turocy was the star in the Zips' win with 7.1 strong innings,
allowing just three runs on six hits. BGSU took the rubber game
however in a wild contest that featured an improbable UA rally that
fell painfully short in the ninth. The Falcons scored seven times
in the first three innings to take a commanding lead early but the
Zips scored five times in the fourth to stay within striking
distance. After a single run in the home half, the Falcons scored
six times in the sixth to seemingly put the game away with a 14-5
lead. But Akron scored seven times over the next two innings and
tied the game at 15-all in the ninth on a three-run homer by Charlie
Lenhard with one out before a walk-off single with two outs
gave the Falcons the series.
• Doug
McNulty's walk-off grand slam completed the cycle and spring
boarded the Zips to their first MAC series victory of the season in
2006, the last time the two teams played at Lee Jackson Field. It
was the first of two straight league series wins for the Zips that
season and the first two for then-first year head coach Pat
Bangtson.
• Akron is 5-2 against Bowling Green at Lee Jackson Field
since 2001.
PLAYER NOTEBOOK
• Senior Kurt
Davidson (.310, 10, 42) moved into a tie for second place on
the school's all-time hits list with a 4-for-5 performance at
Pittsburgh Tuesday. Davidson enters the series with 246 hits in an
Akron uniform, 20 shy of Steve Sada's (1985-88) school
standard.
• Davidson, who broke UA's all-time home runs record last
spring, has been rewriting the Akron record books this year –
having eclipsing the top marks for RBI, total bases and at-bats.
With 51 career doubles, the all-conference catcher stands in third
place and is 10 short of Brian Petrucci's (1994-97) milestone.
• Davidson recorded the third mulit-homer game of his
prestigious career with a pair of bombs at Pitt Tuesday. His
first-inning blast gave the Zips a 2-0 lead and a solo shot in the
fifth pushed the Akron advantage to 4-1.
• With 10 home runs on the year, Davidson has reached
double-digit homers for the third consecutive season.
• Senior Doug
McNulty (.330, 11, 38), who had 11 combined home runs in three
years entering the 2008 campaign, leads the club with 11 home runs
this season alone.
• Kevin
Haas (.342, 1, 27) has hit safely in all but five games this
year and has reached base in all but one. Haas entered the week
ranked 15th in the league in batting, fifth in hits per game and
seventh in runs scored.
