Falcons Head to Nashville as Non-Conference Schedule Winds Down

Saturday, March 17

Nashville, TN

12:00 PM ET

Bowling Green State University

IUPUI

Junior Kaylee Parker & the Falcons play four games in Nashville this weekend

March 16, 2018 | Softball

BGSU to meet IUPUI, Lipscomb this weekend

By: BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSU Athletic Communications)

• The Bowling Green State University softball team returns to the state of Tennessee for the second consecutive weekend. Head coach Sarah Willis and the Falcons will play four games on the campus of Lipscomb University on Saturday and Sunday (March 17-18), facing IUPUI and the host school twice each. All four games will be held at Draper Diamond at Smith Stadium in Nashville.

• Then, the Orange and Brown will prepare for a Wednesday (March 21) doubleheader at Wright State University, with the first pitch of game one set for 5:00 p.m.

BGSU SOFTBALL LINKS
BGSU Weekly Notes: PDF
THE OPPONENTS: IUPUI Softball | Lipscomb Softball
2018 Schedule | 2018 Record Book

FOUR THINGS TO KNOW
• The Falcons have an overall record of 13-9 on the season. BGSU has hit .325 as a team in the first 22 games, while allowing the opponents to bat just .235.

• Junior Alex Sorgi tied the school record with four stolen bases in the Falcons' win over Mississippi Valley State (March 9). Single-game records are sketchy at best, but no Falcon has ever stolen five bases in a game. Sorgi and Molly Holliday (April 2, 2015, vs. the school then known as IPFW) are the only two BGSU players with four steals in a game since 1994.

• Senior Aspen Searle is ranked among the NCAA's active career leaders in five categories. Among current Division-I players, Searle is 32th or higher in career games played, at-bats, batting average, doubles and total bases.

• Four BG players had over 10 RBI in 2017. This year, five Falcons already have driven in 10 or more runs. That group includes juniors Kali Holcomb (25) and Kaylee Parker (16), frosh Sarah Gonzalez (14) and Sammy Dees (12) and senior Aspen Searle (10).

FASCINATING FALCON FACTS
• BGSU heads to Nashville with an overall record of 13-9. The Falcons opened the season by going 5-0 at the CSU Dome Tournament in Cleveland, and BG posted a 4-1 mark at the Elon Classic the following weekend.

• The Brown and Orange went 2-3 at Texas Tech's Jeannine McHaney Memorial Classic, though, then dropped a pair of midweek matchups at Abilene Christian. BG also went 2-3 at last weekend's UofM Softball Tournament in Memphis.

• BGSU is 2-6 in true road contests and 11-3 in neutral-site games this season to date.

• The Falcons have five starters hitting over .320, with four batting .350 or higher. Four of those players are slugging over .500 and have at least nine extra-base hits this year.

• Junior Kali Holcomb leads the team in batting, with a .391 average. Holcomb, who began the season with a 10-game hitting streak, also tops the team with 25 RBI, a .667 slugging pct. and 10 multiple-hit games. She has four home runs to tie for the BGSU lead in that category, and is second on the team with 10 extra-base hits.

• Senior Aspen Searle is batting .390 and has scored a team-high 19 runs. Searle has a BG-best 12 extra-base hits, including a team-leading two triples, and is rapidly moving up the BGSU career lists in multiple offensive categories.

• Junior Alex Sorgi hit a team-best .588 at the Memphis tourney, and now is batting .371 on the year. Sorgi has scored 18 runs to tie Holcomb for second on the club, and she leads the Brown and Orange in walks (12) and stolen bases (10). Sorgi currently has an eight-game hitting streak, and she has eight multi-hit games this year.

• Freshmen Sarah Gonzalez and Sammy Dees and are hitting .351 and .324, respectively. Gonzalez is tied for the team lead with four homers, and like Holcomb, put together a 10-game hitting streak earlier this season. Dees has six doubles to rank second on the club, and she is tied for second with eight seven multi-hit games.

• Through 22 games, BGSU has 201 hits to the opponents' 127. BG has 55 extra-base hits, compared to 32 for Falcon foes.

• Sophomore Logan Everett is hitting .318 in 22 at-bats, while juniors Kellie Natham and Kaylee Parker are batting .295 and .284, respectively. Natham has started the last 17 games after missing the season's first five contests. Parker has 16 RBI to rank second on the team.

• BGSU has outscored the opponents in every inning but one, the second. Ironically, the Falcons had not allowed a run in the second inning through the first 16 games of the season, before giving up seven runs (five unearned) in that frame in the nightcap at Abilene Christian last week.

• BG's best inning has been the sixth, when the Falcons have outscored foes, 31-12.

• In the circle, junior Meredith Miller is 6-4 with an ERA of 2.21 and 88 strikeouts in 69 2/3 innings of work. She has allowed opponents to hit just .209 against her.

• Junior Brooke Parker also has a 6-4 record, along with a 2.96 ERA in 52 innings, while classmate Kiley Sosby has pitched 20-plus innings and is 1-1 with a 3.39 ERA. Both Parker and Sosby have one save on the young season, and Sosby has allowed opponents to hit just .183.

PUTTING THE 'HIT' BACK IN PINCH-HIT
• BG batters combined to go just 1-for-31– an average of just .032 – in pinch-hit appearances last season. Falcon pinch-hitters reached base a total of five times all spring, with three walks and one hit-by-pitch in 2017.

• This season, BG pinch-hitters have reached base seven times to top last year's total. BG has four hits and thre walks in pinch-hit appearances to date. Junior Hannah Giammarino has led the way with a hit, a walk and two runs scored in five plate appearances as a pinch-hitter in 2018, while freshman Payton Hamm has a hit and a walk in four pinch-hit appearances.

FALCONS IN THE NATIONAL RANKINGS
• BGSU can be found all over the latest NCAA statistical rankings. As of Wednesday (March 14), the Falcons were ranked 22nd in the nation in team batting average, and BG was 32nd in slugging pct., 36th in doubles and 49th in scoring. BG leads the MAC in all four of those categories.

• Individually, junior Kali Holcomb is 31st in the nation in runs batted in per game, while classmate Meredith Miller is ranked 36th in the country in strikeouts per seven innings and 37th in total strikeouts.

ASPEN MOVING TOWARD THE SUMMIT: SEARLE RECORD WATCH
• Senior Aspen Searle has added her name to the BGSU record book in many, many categories. Searle has moved into third place in school history in total bases (325), and she is ranked fourth in hits (206), tied for fourth in doubles (41) and fifth in both at-bats (625) and runs (111).

• Searle is sixth on no fewer than four BG lists, including batting average (.330), home runs (22), RBI (103) and slugging pct. (.520). She is tied for eighth in sacrifice flies (four) and17th in walks (49).

WELL THEN, THIS WOULD BE MORE, WOULDN'T IT?
• Last year's edition of the Falcons had 16 home runs in 56 games, but this year's club has homered 17 times in 22 contests.

• In 2017, six different BGSU players hit a homer, but already this season, a total of seven Falcons have homered at least once.

A QUICK LOOK AT THE OPPONENTS
• IUPUI is 4-11 on the year, heading into Saturday's game vs. BGSU. Mandy Dallas leads the Jaguars with a .350 batting average to date, while Megan Overton is 3-4 with a team-low 2.53 ERA this spring. Elisabeth Beirne is in her first season at the helm of the Jags. Ten letterwinners, including three starters, returned from last year's club that went 23-31 overall and 11-6 in the Summit League.

• Lipscomb is 15-6 on the season, and the Bisons are receiving votes in this week's USA Today/NFCA Top 25 Coaches Poll. Mandy Jordan, who was named the Atlantic Sun Conference Pitcher of the Week on Monday, is 10-0 with an ERA of just 0.75 after throwing a no-hitter vs. Bradley on Wednesday. Jordan has 96 strikeouts in 74 innings this spring. Jordan Fortel is 3-3 with a 1.68 ERA, and one of her wins was a no-hitter vs. then No. 14 Ole Miss on opening day. Caitlin Turner is batting a team-best .342 for the Bisons. Head coach Kristin Ryman returned all but one starter from a team that went 36-20 overall and 8-10 in the ASUN last year.

THE SERIES
• BGSU trails the series with IUPUI, 2-0, but the Falcons and Jaguars have not met in 36 years. The teams squared off in a pair of games in Orlando, Fla., early in the 1982 season, with the Jags winning both contests by 3-0 scores.

• BG also trails the Lipscomb series, 2-0. The Bisons captured a pair of one-run, neutral-site games in 2008, including a 10-9 decision and a 6-5 result.

COMING UP...
• Following the four games in Nashville, BGSU will head to Dayton for a Wednesday (March 21) doubleheader at Wright State, with the first pitch of game one set for 5:00 p.m. Then, the Orange and Brown will open both the home and Mid-American Conference portions of the schedule on Friday, March 23, when Ball State comes to Meserve Field to begin a three-game weekend series.

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