Bowling Green State University Athletics
Softball Prepares For Virginia Tourney
March 13, 2000 | Softball
March 13, 2000
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
UP NEXT: The Bowling Green State University softball team, after winning seven of eight games in Florida last week, is idle for nearly two weeks. BGSU will head to Charlottesville, Va., for the University of Virginia Who's Hoo Invitational on March 24-25.
In that tourney, the Falcons (10-4) will play Friday (March 24) games against Pittsburgh and host Virginia, and conclude action with Saturday (March 25) contests vs. Rutgers and Penn State.
After a March 28 twinbill at Wright State, the Brown and Orange will open both the home portion of the schedule and the Mid-American Conference slate on March 31, with a doubleheader vs. Western Michigan.
BEST START IN SCHOOL HISTORY: The Falcons are 10-4 overall, the best start to a season in school history ... the previous best 14-game start in BG softball annals was a 9-5 mark in the 1992 season ... the team won 10 consecutive games before Saturday's (March 11) game-two loss at Stetson ... the win streak tied the school record, set by the 1993 team (April 10-20) ... that 1993 squad, BGSU's last MAC championship team, went 34-18 overall and 26-9 in league play.
THE RECORDS: BGSU is off to the best start in school history at 10-4 overall. The Falcons started the season at 0-3, but tied the school record by winning the next 10 games. Last week's victims included Toledo (two games), Buffalo (two games), North Carolina A&T, Boston University and Stetson. The latter team ended the winning streak by taking the second game of Saturday's (March 11) twinbill.
The Falcons ended the 1999 season with a 21-27 record. BGSU qualified for the MAC Tournament for the second consecutive year.
The Falcons finished MAC action with a 15-11 league mark, good for second place in the East Division. BG, after beginning the league slate with a 4-7 record, won 11 of the final 15 MAC contests.
THE COACHES: BGSU's Leigh Ross-Shaw is in her second season as a collegiate head coach. She assumed the top job after two years as BG's assistant coach. The Ottawa Lake, Mich., native came to the Falcon program in 1996 after serving as the head coach at Notre Dame Academy for four seasons. Ross-Shaw, a 1992 graduate of the University of Toledo, still holds numerous UT and MAC records, and remains the all-time conference leader in batting average (.398), at-bats and hits. She set a MAC record by hitting .447 as a senior en route to All-America Second-Team honors.
Amy Kyler is in her second season as Ross-Shaw's assistant. Kyler, quite possibly the top pitcher in Cleveland State history, graduated from CSU in 1997. She played professionally with the Carolina Diamonds of the Women's Pro Softball League for two years before joining the expansion Akron Racers for the 1999 campaign. Bobbie Molyneux is in her first year as a volunteer assistant with the Falcon softball squad.
Pittsburgh's Michelle Phalen entered the 2000 season with an overall record of 16-46-1 in two years, both with the Panthers. Pitt went 16-34-1 last year, with a 2-14 Big East Conference mark.
Virginia's Cheryl Sprangel is 79-65 in her third year at the school and 545-420-1 in her 16th year overall. UVa entered this past weekend's play with a 6-11 record after going 35-26 last year.
Rutgers head coach Pat Willis entered the year with a record of 506-365-6 in 20 years, all at the school. The Scarlet Knights were 26-26 overall and 7-9 in the Big East last season.
Penn State's Robin Petrini, who has an overall record of 110-122-1, is 91-89-1 in her sixth season in Happy Valley. The Nittany Lions will take a 12-7 record into the UVa tournament after going 35-22 overall and 15-9 in the Big Ten last year.
THE SERIES: The Falcons and Virginia are deadlocked at 1-1 in the all-time series between the teams. BGSU and UVa split a pair of games in 1985, with the Falcons dropping a 2-0 contest before winning the second game, 7-0.
BGSU is 0-2 all-time vs. Rutgers, having lost a 2-0 decision to the Scarlet Knights in 1984 and a 7-4, 14-inning decision six years later.
The Falcons have never met Pittsburgh or Penn State in softball.
MILLENNIUM FALCONS: The second game of Friday's Toledo doubleheader was the 1,000th game in the history of the Bowling Green softball program ... in 22-plus seasons, the Falcons have an all-time winning percentage of .469 (466-529-8).
STUDENT-TEACHER CONFERENCE: Cheryl Sprangel, the Virginia head coach, spent 13 years as the coach at Toledo ... BGSU head coach Leigh Ross-Shaw earned four letters under Sprangel for the Rockets, helping the team to a MAC title and the College World Series in 1989.
BGSU 9, Buffalo 1: On Tuesday (March 7), BG pounded out 14 hits in a win over UB ... the contest was played at the Disney Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Fla. ... BG's North Carolina A&T contest later in the day, as well as all three Friday (March 10) games, were played at the site ... sophomore Rebekah Tipton picked up her first collegiate victory, as the Bulls had only three hits in the game ... at the plate, freshman Kandice Machain and sophomore Natalie Phillips paced the hit brigade for the Brown and Orange ... Machain went 3-for-4, while Phillips had three hits in as many trips ... each player had a double and drove in a run ... junior Jenny Domschot slammed her second homer of the spring, a two-run shot.
BGSU 10, North Carolina A&T 1 (6 innings): For the second time in as many games, the Falcons had 14 hits at the plate ... BG also received a solid pitching effort, as freshman McKenna Houle picked up her first collegiate win ... the Brown and Orange outhit the Lady Aggies by a 14-5 margin ... senior Colleen Bates had three hits in as many at-bats, with a double and a pair of RBI ... a pair of Falcon newcomers, Mandy Aurand and Jessica Jenkins, each doubled in the late innings.
BGSU 1, Boston U. 0 (8 innings): Senior Erin Zwinck's two-out bloop single scored junior Angie Domschot for the only run of the game ... McKenna Houle, the third BG pitcher of the game, threw the final two innings and picked up her second consecutive win ... sophomores Jessie Milosek and Andrea Genter worked three scoreless innings apiece in the win ... each team had four hits in the game ... in the bottom of the eighth, Angie Domschot singled with one out, and senior Carmen Hitterdal sacrificed her to second ... Zwinck followed with her hit as Domschot, running on the play, scored to give BG the win.
BGSU 10-4, Toledo 1-0 (1st game 5 innings): The Falcons swept the arch-rival Rockets Friday (March 10) ... the first contest was called after four-and-a-half innings due to the "mercy rule" ... Andrea Genter scattered four hits in getting the complete-game victory ... the Brown and Orange pounded out nine hits, with Angie Domschot going 3-for-3 and junior Lynsey Ebel going 2-for-3 ... Carmen Hitterdal also had two hits in three at-bats while Colleen Bates had a pair of RBI ... in the second game, Rebekah Tipton threw a two-hitter for the first shutout of her career ... the Brown and Orange outhit the Rockets by a 6-2 margin ... Bates had half of the team's hits, going 3-for-3 and driving in a run.
BGSU 4, Buffalo 2: Junior Jenny Domschot hit another homer as the Falcons won for the ninth consecutive game ... junior Nikki Rouhana went 3-for-4 on the evening, while Angie Domschot was 2-of-3 with a double ... after her two-base hit in the third inning, Carmen Hitterdal sacrificed her to third base ... Angie's twin sister, Jenny, followed with the round-tripper, her third of the year ... sophomore Holly Frantz was 2-for-4 with an RBI as BG outhit the Bulls by an 11-3 margin ... the Falcons left nine runners on base in the game ... McKenna Houle earned the win, going four-plus innings ... Jessie Milosek came on to work out of a fifth-inning jam, and completed the game to earn the save.
BGSU 2-0, at Stetson 0-3: The Falcons split a twinbill at Stetson Saturday (March 11) to end the Florida trip ... sophomore Jessie Milosek threw a complete-game shutout in the opener, as the Falcons tied the school record for consecutive wins at 10 ... BG got just three hits in the game, but had two of those hits in the first inning ... junior Jenny Domschot lashed a two-out double to score both junior Angie Domschot and senior Carmen Hitterdal ... Milosek, who threw her second shutout of the year, scattered six hits ... in the second game, BG again had just three hits, and could not get a runner across the plate ... SU scored once in the first inning, and a fifth-inning homer by the Hatters' Heather McCrimmon completed the scoring ... BG starter Andrea Genter took the loss, while McKenna Houle threw two innings.
ROUND-TRIPPIN': Entering the 1999 season, the BGSU single-season record for homers was eight ... last year's edition of the Falcons obliterated that mark by hitting 19 round-trippers ... in fact, the 1999 team had eight homers in one eight-game span ... through 14 games this year, BG has already homered five times, with junior Jenny Domschot doing much of the damage ... Domschot has three homers on the young season, while senior Erin Zwinck and freshman Libby Voshell each have one ... the school individual single-season record for four-baggers is five, set by Amy Lienhardt in 1988 and tied by Lynsey Ebel last spring.
FALCON QUICK FACTS
UP NEXT March 24-25 *at Who's Hoo Ty. Charlottesville, Va. March 24: BGSU vs. Pittsburgh * 2:00 p.m. BGSU at Virginia * 4:00 p.m.March 25 : BGSU vs. Rutgers * 9:00 a.m. BGSU vs. Penn State * 1:00 p.m.
LAST WEEK March 7 * BGSU 9, Buffalo 1 March 7 * BGSU 10, N.C. A&T 1
March 8 * BGSU 1, Boston U. 0 (8) (at Tampa, Fla.)
March 10 * BGSU 10-4, Toledo 1-0 (first game 5 innings) March 10 * BGSU 4, Buffalo 2
March 11 * BGSU 2-0, at Stetson 0-3 games of March 7 and 10 played at Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex, Orlando, Fla.
2000 BGSU RECORDS Overall: 10-4 Mid-American Conference: 0-0
1999 BGSU FINAL RECORDS Overall: 21-27 Mid-American Conference: 15-11 Finish: Second in East Division
HEAD COACH - Leigh Ross-Shaw (Toledo, 1992) BGSU Record: 31-31 (second year) Overall: 31-31 (second year)
BOWLING GREEN RECORDS All-Time: 466-529-8 (.469) (1978-present / 23rd season) MAC: 220-207-1 (.515) (1983-present / 18th season)
BGSU RESULTS LINE 419/372-7076, choose option 4 (same-day scores and brief summaries from all Falcon athletic teams)
