Bowling Green bats come alive in middle innings of win over Toledo at Fifth Third Field

One swing of the bat from Landon Roque sent fans into a tizzy Friday at Fifth Third Field.

And it sent a baseball across Monroe Street.

The Bowling Green third baseman pummeled a Noah Johnson pitch down the left field line and into a parking lot on the south side of the Commodore Perry. The only suspense was whether it was fair or not.

The two-run home run was part of a five-run fourth inning for the Falcons, who beat the University of Toledo 8-6 on a picturesque late spring night in downtown Toledo.

“I thought we made a great adjustment offensively,” BG coach Kyle Hallock said. “Noah Johnson threw the ball great the first time through the lineup. He’s got really good stuff and he was locating on both sides of the plate, and we had to really grind out at-bats.”

The Rockets led 2-0 in the bottom of the third, and BG didn’t have a hit until the eighth batter as Johnson struck out four of the first six men he faced. But the highest-scoring offense in the Mid-American Conference — and the 14th-best in the nation — scored eight runs on nine hits and one error in the third and fourth innings, turning a 2-0 deficit into an 8-2 advantage.

The Falcons scored four runs with two outs.

It was the only production the Falcons needed. In the first, second, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth innings, they had zero runs and one hit.

“We hit balls hard enough to get through the hole and then do stuff with two outs,” Hallock said. “A lot of what we do is with two outs, and we talk a lot about forcing the pitcher to get that third out. I thought we were really good with two outs, especially the second time through (the lineup).”

Thirteen of BG’s 24 outs were strikeouts.

BG’s Garrett Wright, Tyler Ross, and Sam Reidel each had two hits. Wright and Roque had two RBIs.

BG pitcher Nic Good allowed two runs on four hits, striking out three and walking one. Good only gave up one extra-base hit and hit one batter.

Toledo outfielders Caden Konczak and Garret Pike — the No. 1 and 2 hitters in UT’s lineup — were a combined 6 for 9 with two RBIs, two runs, one double, a stolen base, and two strikeouts. The rest of the order was 5 for 28 with three RBIs, four runs, zero extra-base hits, and seven strikeouts.

Entering the final day of the regular season, the MAC champion Falcons have already clinched the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament. Depending on Saturday's result, Toledo could be the fourth, fifth, or sixth seed.

The double-elimination MAC tournament is Wednesday through Saturday at Crushers Stadium in Avon.