Bowling Green State University Athletics
Softball Tied For First In East Division
April 24, 2000 | Softball
April 24, 2000
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green softball team, having moved into a tie for first place in the Mid-American Conference's East Division, has completed the home portion of the league schedule. The Falcons (24-12 overall, 9-3 MAC) will begin an eight-game road trip with five games this week, beginning with a Tuesday (April 25) doubleheader at Miami. The Falcons and RedHawks are scheduled to begin the day's action at 2:00 p.m. at the Miami Softball Field in Oxford, Ohio.
This weekend, the Falcons will play a three-game series against Marshall, the team currently tied with BGSU atop the East Division. The teams are scheduled to play a single game Friday (April 28) at 3:00 p.m. and a Saturday (April 29) doubleheader that begins at 1:00 p.m. All three games will be held at the Marshall Softball Field in Huntington, W. Va.
TOP STORY: Bowling Green sophomore Jessie Milosek (pictured) threw her first collegiate no-hitter in the Falcons' 2-0 win over Kent Saturday (April 22) ... Milosek faced just one batter over the minimum ... the only baserunner she allowed came on a two-out walk in the fourth inning.
GREAT START: The Falcons are 24-12 overall, a record that matches the best start to a season in school history ... the 1992 team also posted a 36-game start of 24-12, en route to a 37-16 overall record and a 19-10 MAC mark ... the 1993 squad went 23-13 to start the season ... that Falcon team went 34-18 and won the MAC with a 26-9 record.
THE RECORDS: BGSU is 24-12 on the year, and 9-3 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 won five of six games, posting a 5-0 record in league play. The Brown and Orange swept a Tuesday (April 18) home twinbill vs. Miami, winning by scores of 2-1 and 12-1 in five innings. The next day, the Falcons lost at #11 Michigan, 8-0 in six innings, but BGSU rebounded to sweep visiting Kent over the weekend. BG won by a 5-1 score Friday (April 21), then triumphed by scores of 2-0 and 3-1 on Saturday (April 22). Sophomore pitcher Jessie Milosek threw a no-hitter in Saturday's first win. BGSU has won seven straight conference contests.
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 15-23 overall record, and the RedHawks are 4-8 in MAC play. Last week, in addition to the twinbill at BG, MU captured two of three games vs. Ohio. A year ago, the RedHawks finished 15-36 overall and went 8-17 in conference play.
Marshall is 21-21 overall, and the Thundering Herd will take a 9-3 MAC into a Tuesday DH at Ohio. Last week, MU swept OU in a home twinbill before winning two of three games at Akron. The Herd has already surpassed last year's MAC win total. Marshall was 24-28 overall in 1999, and had a league mark of 8-17.
THE COACHES: BGSU's Leigh Ross-Shaw is in her second season as a collegiate head coach, with an overall record of 45-39 and a MAC mark of 24-14. 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 30-59 in her second year, both with the RedHawks and as a collegiate head coach.
Shonda Stanton, in her first year at Marshall, is 48-46 in her second year as a collegiate head coach.
THE SERIES: The Falcons lead Miami by a 36-26 margin in the all-time series after Tuesday's two wins. The Brown and Orange took three of last year's four games, and the teams split their 1999 DH in Oxford. BGSU has won the last five overall games after losing the previous four to the RedHawks.
BGSU is 7-0 against Marshall in a series that began in 1998. The Falcons have won all four games in Huntington, but needed a Colleen Bates two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh to win the last meeting, 5-4, in BG (April 16, 1999).
HOMER HAPPY: BGSU senior Colleen Bates hit another homer last week to extend her school career record ... Bates, who set the mark with her ninth career round-tripper on April 14, hit her 10th on Tuesday (April 18) vs. Miami ... Kathy Fisher (1983-86) and Sandy Krebs (1983-86) previously held the BG record with eight career homers apiece ... Falcon junior Lynsey Ebel hit her eighth career homer in the same April 14 game that saw Bates hit her ninth, vs. Akron.
GETTING OFFENSIVE: Heading into the Miami contests, Bowling Green is averaging 4.11 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___36____148___4.11 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 Bowling Green (24-12)_____9-3 Marshall (21-21)__________9-3 Kent (13-23)______________5-8 Akron (18-17)_____________4-7 Miami (15-23)_____________4-8 Ohio (10-24)______________4-9West Division Northern Ill. (24-17)____12-2 Central Michigan (19-8)___9-2 Ball State (17-21)________6-6 Eastern Michigan (17-20)__4-8 Western Michigan (9-25)___4-8 Toledo (9-20)_____________3-9
ROUHANA IS MAC P-O-W: Junior Nikki Rouhana was named the MAC Player of the Week, the league office announced Tuesday (April 18) morning ... Rouhana batted .455 in BGSU's five games the previous week, and she had four hits in six at-bats (.667) in the Falcons' three-game MAC series vs. Akron ... Rouhana was the second straight Falcons to earn P-O-W honors, as junior Angie Domschot had been named by the league the week prior.
at BGSU 2-12, Miami 1-1: Senior Carmen Hitterdal provided solid play, both offensively and defensively, in Tuesday's opener ... she tripled to drive in the tying run, and scored the winning run ... Hitterdal also doubled, and threw out a runner at the plate in the sixth inning ... sophomore Jessie Milosek got the win, scattering eight hits ... BGSU scored six runs in both the first and third innings to win the nightcap ... freshman McKenna Houle was the beneficiary, earning the win despite surrendering 10 hits ... eight of BG's first nine batters of the game reached base, including senior Colleen Bates, who homered to left field.
at Michigan 8, BGSU 0: The Falcons could manage just two hits in a loss to the nation's 11th-ranked team Wednesday (April 19) ... sophomore Andrea Genter took the loss ... Colleen Bates and Renee Rosemeier had the only BGSU hits of the game.
at BGSU 5, Kent 1: A pair of seniors, Colleen Bates and Erin Zwinck, had three hits apiece in a Friday Falcon win ... BG used a four-run fifth inning to break a 1-1 tie, and McKenna Houle made the lead stand up, with a complete-game six-hitter ... in addition to the three-hit performances by Bates and Zwinck, freshman Libby Voshell had two hits in as many at-bats.
at BGSU 2-3, Kent 0-1: The Falcons swept the Golden Flashes on Saturday (April 22) ... Jessie Milosek threw a no-hitter in the opener, allowing only a two-out walk in the fourth inning ... she faced just one batter over the minimum ... Erin Zwinck's two-out, two-run single in the first inning provided all the support Milosek would need ... Angie Domschot had two of BG's four hits ... in the nightcap, a two-run hit by Libby Voshell erased a 1-0 Kent lead in the fourth ... Andrea Genter picked up the win, with Milosek pitching the last two innings for the save ... Genter allowed only an unearned run ... Renee Rosemeier singled to score Colleen Bates with the final run of the game ... KSU outhit BG, 9-5, in the second game.
FALCON FACTS: The Falcons have surpassed the team's victory total for all of last season ... BGSU is 24-12 after going 21-27 in 1999 ... the Falcons have won the last seven MAC games, and surrendered one run or fewer in last week's five MAC games ... BG outscored league opponents by a 24-4 margin last week ... defensively, the Falcons played error-free ball in the first two Kent games, just the fourth and fifth times this season that BG had done so ... in the latest NCAA statistical rankings, sophomore pitcher Jessie Milosek was 46th in the country in earned-run average ... she had an ERA of 1.14 at the time (through games of April 16) ... as a team, the Falcons were 20th nationally with a 1.39 ERA ... Milosek's ERA now stands at 1.01, while the team's ERA is 1.49 ... Milosek was 2-0 with a save and an ERA of 0.44 last week ... she has four shutouts and 10 complete games in her 11 starts this year ... in MAC action, all four of her starts have been complete-game wins ... senior 3B/DP Erin Zwinck hit .500 last week, including .583 in the MAC wins ... Zwinck is hitting a team-best .472 (17-of-36) in MAC games this season, with an on-base percentage of .525 and a .556 slugging pct. ... BGSU has completed the home portion of the MAC schedule, and the Falcons have not yet played a single league road game ... BG's scheduled road doubleheaders at Toledo and Ball State (April 7-8) were cancelled due to the weather ... as a team, BGSU is batting .279 ... the BGSU ERA, as mentioned, is 1.49, and opponents have hit just .229 against the Brown and Orange ... the Falcons have hit 12 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 64 extra-base hits to the opponents' 29.
FALCON QUICK FACTS
UP NEXT BGSU at Miami (DH) Tues., April 25 * 2:00 p.m. Oxford, OhioBGSU at Marshall Fri., April 28 * 3:00 p.m. Huntington, West Virginia
BGSU at Marshall (DH) Sat., April 29 * 1:00 p.m. Huntington, West Virginia
LAST WEEK at BGSU 2-12, Miami 1-1 Tues., Apr. 18 * BGSU Softball Field (second game five innings)
at Michigan 8, BGSU 0 (six innings) Wed., April 19 * Ann Arbor, Mich.
at BGSU 5, Kent 1 Fri., April 21 * BGSU Softball Field
at BGSU 2-3, Kent 0-1 Sat., April 22 * BGSU Softball Field
2000 BGSU RECORDS Overall: 24-12 Mid-American Conference: 9-3
HEAD COACH - Leigh Ross-Shaw (Toledo, 1992) BGSU Record: 45-39 (second year) Overall: 45-39 (second year) MAC Record: 24-14
ASSISTANT COACH - Amy Kyler (Cleveland State, 1997)
BOWLING GREEN RECORDS All-Time: 480-537-8 (.472) (1978-present / 23rd season) MAC: 229-210-1 (.522) (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)
