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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Host Miami And Kent, Travel To #12 Michigan
April 17, 2000 | Softball
April 17, 2000
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - UP NEXT: The Bowling Green State University softball team, after taking two of last weekend's three Mid-American Conference games, is scheduled to play five MAC home games this week, beginning with a Tuesday (April 18) doubleheader vs. Miami. The Falcons and RedHawks are scheduled to begin the day's action at 2:00 p.m. at the BGSU Softball Field.
Wednesday (April 19), the Brown and Orange will head to Ann Arbor for a single game against #12 Michigan, beginning at 3:00 p.m. The teams' scheduled April 4 action was postponed due to inclement weather, and Wednesday's game was recently added to the slate.
This weekend, the Falcons will finish a stretch of eight consecutive home games in MAC play, with a three-game set against visiting Kent. The teams are scheduled to play a single game Friday (April 21) at 3:00 p.m. and a Saturday (April 22) doubleheader that begins at 1:00 p.m.
The Kent series completes home conference action for the Brown and Orange. BGSU is scheduled to play the last eight MAC contests on the road.
THIS JUST IN...: Bowling Green senior Colleen Bates hit her ninth career homer last week, setting a new school record ... Bates' round-tripper in Friday's (April 14) game vs. Akron moved her past Kathy Fisher (1983-86) and Sandy Krebs (1983-86) to the top of the all-time school list for homers ... later in the same inning of that game, Falcon junior Lynsey Ebel hit her eighth career homer.
GREAT START: The Falcons are 19-11 overall, the third-best start to a season in school history ... the best 30-game start in BG softball annals is 21-9, set in the 1992 season ... that team finished 37-16 overall and 19-10 in league play ... the 1993 squad went 20-10 to start the season ... that Falcon team went 34-18 and won the MAC with a 26-9 record.
THE RECORDS: BGSU is 19-11 on the year, and 4-3 in MAC action. The Falcons started the season at 0-3, but tied the school record by winning the next 10 games. Last week, BGSU dropped three games before rebounding for a doubleheader sweep. The Brown and Orange lost a Tuesday (April 11) home game vs. Ohio State, 6-2, and fell by a 1-0 count at Dayton Thursday (April 13). The next day, the Falcons lost to Akron by a 9-7 score, but BGSU rebounded to sweep the visiting Zips by scores of 7-2 and 5-3 on Saturday (April 15).
The Falcons ended the 1999 season with a 21-27 record. BGSU qualified for the MAC Tournament for the second consecutive year.
The '99 Falcons finished MAC action with a 15-11 league mark, good for second place in the East Division. BG began the league slate with a 4-7 record before winning 11 of the final 15 MAC contests.
Miami checks into Tuesday's games with a 13-20 overall record, and the RedHawks are 2-5 in MAC play. Last weekend, MU lost two of three games at Kent. A year ago, the RedHawks finished 15-36 overall and went 8-17 in conference play.
Michigan is 33-8 overall, and the Wolverines are 10-1 in Big Ten Conference play. U-M, ranked 12th in the nation, split with Central Michigan last week before sweeping two-game series from both Ohio State and Penn State. A year ago, the Wolverines went 51-13-1 overall and won the Big Ten with a 21-3 league ledger.
Kent is 9-20 overall, and the Golden Flashes are 3-5 in the MAC heading into Tuesday's home twinbill vs. Akron. KSU will head to Youngstown State for two Wednesday games before coming to BGSU this weekend. Last week, the Flashes split a Wednesday DH at Penn State before winning two of the three weekend games vs. Miami. Kent was 34-18 overall in 1999, and won the MAC's East Division with a 20-8 league mark.
THE COACHES: BGSU's Leigh Ross-Shaw is in her second season as a collegiate head coach, with a record of 40-38. 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 hit a MAC-record .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 for the Carolina Diamonds of the Women's Pro Softball League for two years before joining the expansion Akron Racers for the 1999 campaign.
Miami's Angie Jacobs is 28-56 in her second year, both with the RedHawks and as a collegiate head coach.
Michigan head coach Carol Hutchins, in her 16th year with the Wolverines, is 649-273-2. She is 672-284-2 in her 17th overall season.
Karen Linder, 98-93 in her fourth year in Kent, is 351-293-1 in her 15th year as a collegiate head coach.
THE SERIES: The Falcons lead Miami by a 34-26 margin in the all-time series, and the Brown and Orange took three of last year's four games, including a DH sweep by scores of 7-0 and 11-6 in BG last April 27. BGSU has won the last three overall games after losing the previous four to the RedHawks.
Michigan leads the Falcons by a 17-4 count, and the Wolverines took a pair of five-inning decisions two years ago at a tournament at Purdue. Those games, 9-2 and 12-1 U-M wins, gave the Wolves a five-game series winning streak.
The Falcons trail Kent, 39-32-1, and the Flashes captured four of last year's five meetings. One of those wins was a 2-1 decision in the MAC Tournament that ended BGSU's season. The teams traded blowout wins at the BGSU Softball Field last May 7, with a 9-3 KSU win following a 10-2, six-inning Falcon triumph.
GETTING OFFENSIVE: Heading into the Miami contests, Bowling Green is averaging 4.13 runs per game this year ... the only team in school history to average more runs was the 1981 squad ... that year, BG averaged a whopping 5.25 runs per game, scoring 147 times in 28 outings ... the top-scoring Falcon teams are listed below, with the current team's total-to-date included:
Year___GP___Runs___Avg. 1981___28____147___5.25 2000___30____124___4.13 1980___25_____95___3.80 1988___59____210___3.56 1985___51____181___3.55 1992___53____185___3.49 1999___48____167___3.48 1993___52____174___3.35
2000 MAC STANDINGS:
East Division Team (Overall)__________MAC Marshall (17-20)________5-2 Bowling Green (19-11)___4-3 Akron (17-13)___________3-3 Kent (9-20)_____________3-5 Ohio (9-20)_____________3-5 Miami (13-20)___________2-5West Division Northern Ill. (19-17)___7-2 Central Mich. (14-7)____5-1 Eastern Mich. (16-16)___3-4 Toledo (9-15)___________3-4 Western Mich. (8-21)____3-4 Ball State (13-20)______2-5
Ohio State 6, at BGSU 2: On Tuesday (April 11), the visiting Buckeyes scored three unearned runs in the top of the first inning and never looked back ... OSU added three more unearned runs in the top of the fifth, as all eight runs in the game were unearned ... BG scored twice in the bottom of the fifth ... those runs scored on two hits and two Buckeye errors ... freshman McKenna Houle took the loss, despite not allowing an earned run.
at Dayton 1, BGSU 0: In a classic pitcher's dual Thursday (April 13), the Flyers pushed across a seventh-inning run for the win ... sophomore Jessie Milosek and UD's Sara Hatcher each threw a complete-game four-hitter ... Milosek got out of a bases-loaded, no-outs jam in the third ... but, in the seventh, UD scored on a hit batter, a sacrifice bunt and a single ... BGSU advanced a runner as far as second base only three times in the game.
Akron 9, BGSU 7: The Zips rebounded from a 6-0 deficit with nine unanswered runs ... BGSU exploded in the first inning, as senior Colleen Bates and junior Lynsey Ebel each hit three-run homers to right-center field ... the Zips had just three hits in the first five innings off sophomore Andrea Genter, before scoring six runs of their own in the sixth ... UA added three more in the seventh ... in the bottom of the seventh, BG scored a run and had runners at first and second with two outs ... Ebel hit a ball that sent the UA rightfielder to the wall in right-center, but she made the catch to end the threat and the game ... Jessie Milosek took the loss in relief.
at BGSU 7-5, Akron 2-3: The Falcons swept the Zips on Saturday (April 15) ... Jessie Milosek threw a complete-game four-hitter in the opener, while freshman Libby Voshell drove in three runs ... Milosek spotted the Zips two runs in the top of the first, then settled down ... she allowed only one hit the rest of the way, and struck out a career-high seven batters in the game ... BG scored runs in four consecutive innings, including three in the third and two in the fifth ... in the nightcap, McKenna Houle scattered six hits and surrendered just one earned run in a complete-game effort ... BG scored a run in the bottom of the second inning, then - after UA tied the score in the third - scored four times in the third inning ... the Falcons bunched five of the game's eight hits into that third inning, including an RBI double by Nikki Rouhana after run-scoring singles by Rene‚ Rosemeier and Erin Zwinck ... Holly Frantz had two hits in the game for the Brown and Orange.
FALCON FACTS: The Falcons need just two wins to tie the team's victory total for all of last season ... BGSU is 19-11 after going 21-27 in 1999 ... in the latest NCAA statistical rankings, sophomore pitcher Jessie Milosek was 14th in the country in earned-run average ... she had an ERA of 0.72 at the time (through games of April 9) ... as a team, the Falcons were 15th nationally with a 1.22 ERA ... junior 1B Nikki Rouhana hit .455 last week, including .667 in the Falcons' three MAC games ... on the season, Rouhana is hitting a team-best .350, and also leads the Falcons with an on-base percentage of .453 ... she is hitting a spectacular .600 (9-for-15) in MAC contests, with a BG-best .867 slugging percentage and a .636 OBP ... as a team, BG hit .300 in the Akron series ... this season, every BGSU regular is hitting at least .241, as the team is batting .279 ... the BGSU ERA is 1.39, and opponents have hit just .219 against the Brown and Orange ... the Falcons have hit 11 homers to date this season, the second-highest total in school history ... last year's team set the record with 19 round-trippers ... BG has pounded out a total of 57 extra-base hits to the opponents' 23 ... the Falcon pitching staff has recorded a total of nine shutouts this season ... all four hurlers - sophomores Andrea Genter, Jessie Milosek and Rebekah Tipton and freshman McKenna Houle - have thrown at least one complete-game shutout.
FALCON QUICK FACTS
UP NEXT BGSU vs. Miami (DH) Tues., April 18 * 2:00 p.m. BGSU Softball FieldBGSU at Michigan Wed., April 19 * 3:00 p.m. Ann Arbor, Mich.
BGSU vs. Kent Fri., April 21 * 3:00 p.m. BGSU Softball Field
BGSU vs. Kent (DH) Sat., April 22 * 1:00 p.m. BGSU Softball Field
LAST WEEK Ohio State 6, at BGSU 2 Tues., Apr. 11 * BGSU Softball Field
at Dayton 1, BGSU 0 Thurs., April 13 * Dayton, Ohio
Akron 9, at BGSU 7 Fri., April 14 * BGSU Softball Field
at BGSU 7-5, Akron 2-3 Sat., April 15 * BGSU Softball Field
2000 BGSU RECORDS Overall: 19-11 Mid-American Conference: 4-3
HEAD COACH - Leigh Ross-Shaw (Toledo, 1992) BGSU Record: 40-38 (second year) Overall: 40-38 (second year)
ASSISTANT COACH - Amy Kyler (Cleveland State, 1997)
BOWLING GREEN RECORDS All-Time: 475-536-8 (.470) (1978-present / 23rd season) MAC: 224-210-1 (.516) (1983-present / 18th season)
1999 BGSU FINAL RECORDS Overall: 21-27 Mid-American Conference: 15-11 Finish: Second in East Division
BGSU RESULTS LINE 419/372-7076, choose option 4 (same-day scores and brief summaries from all Falcon athletic teams)
