May 19, 2008
2008 MAC Baseball Tournament Central
2008 MAC Tournament Bracket
ATHENS, Ohio - The Ohio baseball team heads to VA Memorial Stadium in nearby Chillicothe, Ohio, Wednesday where it will face Bowling Green in the opening round of the 2008 Mid-American Conference Baseball Tournament. The sixth-seeded Bobcats and third-seeded Falcons will get the tournament underway with first pitch at 9 a.m. on Wednesday morning.
This year's tournament field consists of eight teams, No. 1 Kent State, No. 2 Eastern Michigan, No. 3 Bowling Green, No. 4 Northern Illinois, No. 5 Ball State, No. 6 Ohio, No. 7 Western Michigan and No. 8 Central Michigan. The field is broken up into two pools and is a double elimination format, featuring a winner and a losers bracket in each pool. The championship will be one game between the two winners of each pool. After playing Bowling Green in the first round, Ohio will face either Eastern Michigan or Western Michigan in the second round of the tournament. If the Bobcats beat Bowling Green they will play the winner of EMU/WMU at 4 p.m. on Thursday and if they lose to Bowling Green they will play the loser of the EMU/WMU game at 9 a.m. on Thursday.
To view the complete tournament bracket please click here or on the link at the top of the page.
Ticket Information
To order advanced tickets please call (740) 773-8326
-$10 Daily - General Admission (Does not include Championship Day)
-$6 Daily - Youth and Students (Does not include Championship Day)
-$25 - Tournament Pass - Adults (Does not include Championship Day)
-$15 - Tournament Pass - Youth and Students (Does not include Championship Day)
-$6 - Championship Day - General Admission
-$5 - Championship Day - Youth and Students
-No charge - Children 3 and under
For all your tournament information please click here.
Catch the Action
Fans can listen to pitch-by-pitch action of Wednesday's game and Thursday's game on WATH 970radio in Athens. Brian Boesch and Caleb Troop will have the call from VA Memorial Stadium. There will also be a free live web stream of all of the tournament games and live stats available on the MAC Web site. To view the live web streaming fans will just need to register for the All-MACcess service but there will be no charge to view games.
Scouting Bowling Green
Bowling Green finished the regular season with an overall record of 31-18 and a MAC mark of 16-8, which gave the Falcons a share of the MAC Regular Season Championship with Kent State. Kent State swept the Falcons during the regular season to take the tie-breaker and the top spot out of the East Division, dropping BGSU to the No. 3 seed. The Falcons enter the tournament on a tear, having won 11 straight contests. Bowling Green is leading the MAC in team batting, with a .322 team-average and is sixth in the conference with a 5.69 team-ERA. The Falcons have three players in the top 11 in the league in batting average, led by Ryan Shay's league-leading .411 average on the season. On the hill the Falcons have been led by Nick Cantrell (8-3; 4.58 ERA) and Frank Berry (6-1; 5.03 ERA). Head Coach Danny Schmitz is in his 18th season at the helm of the program.
All-Time Series
The Bobcats are 79-56-1 against the Falcons all-time. Bowling Green was one of just two teams to sweep Ohio during the regular season, as the Falcons took all three games (18-4, 3-2, 7-5) at Bob Wren Stadium earlier this year. Wednesday's likely starter for Bowling Green, Frank Berry, went 7.0 innings in the first game of the series, allowing four earned runs on 10 hits with no strike outs and the Falcons' bats provided him with 18 runs. The 14-run loss was the largest loss this season for Ohio. Ohio Head Coach Joe Carbone is 31-27 against the Falcons in his 20 seasons at Ohio.
Probable Starters for Wednesday
Ohio:
#1 Zach Elmer (Jr., LHP, 5-11, 185)
4-3, 3.68 ERA, 66.0 IP, 27 ER, 45 K, 39 BB
Bowling Green:
#35 Frank Berry (So., RHP, 6-2, 215)
6-1, 5.03 ERA, 62.2 IP, 35 ER, 23 K, 20 BB
Ohio's Season Thus Far
The Bobcats finished the regular season with a record of 27-28 overall and a 14-13 MAC mark. Ohio's 27 wins are the most by a Bobcat squad since 2003, when the team went 35-23. Ohio's 14-13 conference record matches the 2006 team's conference mark of 14-13. The Bobcats enter the tournament on a roll, having won seven of their last eight contests. As a team the Bobcats are also close to eclipsing several all-time marks at Ohio. Ohio is just 27 hits away from breaking the 2003 team's record for hits in a season (656), the '08 squad is just five at-bats away from overtaking the 2003 team in most plate appearances (2,021) and the `Cats are 21 put-outs away from passing the '03 team's 1,488 put-outs.
Ohio finished third in the MAC in batting (.312) and fifth in pitching (5.65 ERA) this season. In MAC games only those numbers are nearly identical, as Ohio finished third in the league in batting (.313) and fifth in pitching (5.41 ERA). The Bobcats finished fifth in the conference in fielding percentage this season, posting a .960 percentage.
Ohio in the MAC Tourney
The Bobcats are making their first MAC Tourney appearance since the 2003 season. Of the 20 MAC Tournaments, Ohio has now made an appearance in nine of them and has an 11-16 record all-time in the tournament. Ohio has won one MAC Tournament title, in 1997, when the Bobcats finished 43-18 and 22-9 in the MAC. In Ohio's last appearance in 2003 it went 2-2, defeating Ball State, 14-4, losing to Miami, 4-3, defeating Northern Illinois, 9-8, and then falling to Miami, 6-0.
Stiffler Chasing Bobcat History
Matt Stiffler is currently first in career triples (16), third in runs scored (172), fifth in total bases (361), seventh in hits (225) and tied for seventh in doubles (41) all-time at Ohio. Stiffler's 86 hits this season tie for fourth at Ohio in a single season and put him just six away from establishing a new Bobcat record. His 16 home runs on the year are tied for fourth-most in a season. This year the senior also has 69 runs scored (second-most), 158 total bases (third-most) and 56 RBI (tied for sixth-most).
Rigo, Krauss Sweep MAC Weekly Awards Again
For the second time this season Ohio junior right-hander Chris Rigo and sophomore Marc Krauss swept the MAC weekly awards. Rigo was named East Division Pitcher of the Week of a fourth time this season and Krauss was named Player of the Week for a second time this season. Rigo threw his third complete-game of the season to lead Ohio to a victory in game one against Buffalo. Rigo was perfect through three innings, and allowed just five hits and no earned runs in nine innings on the hill. The Westlake, Ohio, native struck out seven batters and the three runs that were scored on him were all unearned after an Ohio fielding error in the fourth inning. He posted a 0.00 ERA, a .888 WHIP, and held opposing batters to a .161 average for the week.
Krauss posted a .583 batting average and a .688 on-base percentage to lead the Bobcats to a 2-1 record this past week and their first trip to the MAC Tournament since 2003. Krauss went 7-for-12 for the week, with two doubles, one home run, five RBI and three runs scored. Krauss usually plays right field, but due to an injury he was switched to third base for all three games against Buffalo, where he had a 1.000 fielding percentage. Earlier this year, on March 31, both Rigo and Krauss swept the awards as well. Ohio totaled 11 conference player/pitcher of the week awards this season.
Seeing Double...Double
Ohio sophomore Marc Krauss and junior Brandon Besl have each posted 19 doubles on the season, which is tied for fourth all-time at Ohio for a single season. Last year, Krauss had 19 doubles and Besl had 17 doubles. Krauss has 38 doubles over his two years with the Bobcats, just one away from breaking into the top 10 for a career and Besl has 41, tied for sixth on the career list.
Krauss Walks
Marc Krauss has drawn 43 walks this season, which is just four shy of setting a new record at Ohio. In the first game of the season against Charleston Southern Krauss drew a career-high four walks. The four walks were the most by an Ohio player since teammate Matt Stiffler drew five walks two seasons ago.
MAC Stats
Ohio ended the regular season with numerous players finishing at the top of the league in statistical categories. Brandon Besl finished fifth in batting (.378) and Matt Stiffler finished ninth (.358). On the mound, Zach Elmer led the Bobcats, posting a 3.68 ERA, good for fourth best in the MAC. Matt Smith finished the regular season with a 4.81 ERA, 16th-best. At the plate it was Stiffler, Besl, and Marc Krauss that etched their names at the top of many conference statistical categories. Stiffler was second in hits (1.56 per game), first in runs scored (1.25 per game), fourth in home runs (.29 per game/16 total), second in triples (6), seventh in RBI (1.02 per game), first in total bases (2.87 per game) and third in slugging percentage (.658). Besl finished third in hits (1.55 per game), first in doubles (.45 per game), fourth in RBI (1.07 per game), third in total bases (2.69 per game) and fourth in slugging percentage (.657). Krauss was fourth in runs scored (1.13 per game), sixth in doubles (.36 per game) and fourth in walks (.81 per game).
