Bowling Green State University Athletics
Softball Heads To MAC Tournament
May 10, 2000 | Softball
May 10, 2000
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green softball team, having tied for the Mid-American Conference East Division title, now prepares for the MAC Tournament. The Falcons (30-16 overall, 13-7 MAC) will be the second seed for the six-team league tourney, which begins Thursday (May 11).
BGSU will play in Thursday's third game of the MAC Tournament, which will be hosted by top-seeded Northern Illinois University. The Falcons will play the winner of the tourney's first game, which pits third-seeded Central Michigan vs. #6 Ball State.
For the MAC Tournament, the two division winners are seeded first and second, and the remaining four teams are seeded by record, regardless of division.
In addition to NIU, BGSU, CMU and BSU, the tournament field features fourth-seeded Marshall and fifth-seeded Akron. Mary M. Bell Field will serve as the site of the league tourney.
MAC TOURNAMENT ON THE WEB: Details were still to be finalized as of Wednesday morning, but plans called for MAC Tournament updates to be posted on the Internet at either the Mid-American Conference site (www.midamconf.com) or the Northern Illinois athletics site (www.niu.edu/athletics) ... in either case, it is likely that the site would be updated inning-by-inning (and possibly after each batter).
GREAT RECORD: The Falcons enter the tournament with 30 wins, the fourth-most in school history ... the 1992 squad recorded a school-record 37 wins, while the 1988 team had 35 victories and the 1993 team had 34 ... BGSU's current winning percentage of .652 would rank third in school annals ... the 1992 team had a BG-best .698 pct., having gone 37-16, and the '93 squad won at a .654 clip (34-18).
2000 MAC TOURNAMENT
at Mary M. Bell Field, DeKalb, Illinois
Thursday, May 11
G1: #3 CMU vs. #6 BSU, 10:00 am G2: #4 Marshall vs. #5 Akron, 12:30 G3: #2 BGSU vs. G1 Winner, 3:00 G4: #1 NIU vs. G2 Winner, 5:30
Friday, May 12
G5: G2 Loser vs. G3 Loser, 10:00 am G6: G1 Loser vs. G4 Loser, 12:30 G7: G3 Winner vs. G4 Winner, 3:00 G8: G5 Winner vs. G6 Winner, 5:30
Saturday, May 13
G9: G7 Loser vs. G8 Winner, 11:00 am G10: G7 Winner vs. G9 Winner, 1:30 G11: G10 Participants (if necessary)** would begin 30 minutes after end of G10 All times CDT
THE RECORDS: BGSU is 30-16 on the year, and finished 13-7 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 went 1-2 at Ohio to close the conference schedule and earn a tie for the MAC East Division title. The Brown and Orange lost to the Bobcats, 3-2, on Friday (May 5) before splitting a Saturday twinbill. BGSU dropped the opener, 4-2, before winning the nightcap by an 8-6 count.
On Monday (May 8), the Falcons swept a non-league doubleheader from Cleveland State, beating the visiting Vikings by 7-6 and 4-0 scores.
The Falcons end the MAC portion of of the regular season tied with Marshall at the top of the East Division. BG won the tiebreaker, however, by virtue of two wins in three head-to-head meetings with the Thundering Herd.
BGSU will head to the MAC Tournament for the third consecutive season.
The Falcons ended the 1999 season with a 21-27 record, and 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.
#1 Northern Illinois enters the MAC Tournament with a 32-20 record, and the Huskies went 19-3 in MAC play. Last weekend, NIU swept a three-game series from visiting Ball State. Last year, the Huskies went 35-19 overall and 22-4 in league action.
#3 Central Michigan will take a 27-11 overall record to DeKalb, and the Chippewas went 15-5 in MAC action. Last weekend, CMU split road doubleheaders with Kent (State) and Akron, and the Chippewas swept Detroit on Monday. The 1999 Chippewas were 41-18 overall, 20-8 in MAC regular-season play and 4-0 in the league tourney.
#4 Marshall is 25-25, and the Thundering Herd went 13-7 in league action. Last weekend, the Herd swept a three-game set from visiting Miami to tie the Falcons for the East Division title. Marshall won a pair of 1-0 games over the RedHawks on Saturday. A year ago, the Herd went 24-28 overall and 8-17 in MAC play.
#5 Akron enters the league tournament with a 29-19 record, and the Zips went 12-8 in league play. UA saw a 10-game win streak come to an end with the split against CMU Saturday. The Zips took two games from Eastern Michigan on Friday. Last season, Akron was 27-28, including a 13-13 league slate.
#6 Ball State, 20-28 overall, ended MAC play with a 9-11 ledger. The Cardinals lost all three games at NIU last weekend. Last year's edition of the Cardinals were 22-38 and 8-18.
THE COACHES: BGSU's Leigh Ross-Shaw is in her second season as a collegiate head coach, with an overall record of 51-43 and a MAC mark of 28-18. The Falcons' comeback win on Monday over Cleveland State was the 50th victory of her collegiate career.
Ross-Shaw 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.
NIU's Donna Martin is 202-125-1 in her sixth year, all in DeKalb.
CMU's Margo Jonker has a career head-coaching record of 724-391-5 in her 21st year, all with the Chippewas.
Marshall's Shonda Stanton, in her first year in Huntington, is 52-50 in her second season as a head coach.
UA's Deanna Parks is 120-87 in her fourth year with the Zips, and 180-130 in her seventh season overall.
BSU's Terri Laux is 106-109 in her fourth year in Muncie, and 258-357-2 in her 13th total season.
THE SERIES: BGSU trails Northern Illinois by a 7-6 margin, but the Huskies won both of this year's meetins, 9-5 and 7-5 wins at the BGSU Softball Field on April 1.
The Falcons trail Central Michigan, 43-11, and the Chippewas have won 17 consecutive games dating to 1994. The teams have not yet met in 2000.
BGSU leads Marshall by a 9-1 margin in a series which began in 1998. The Herd's lone victory came this year, on April 29.
BG holds a 29-16-1 advantage in the Akron series, and the Falcons captured two of this year's three games. In the other contest, the Zips overcame a 6-0, sixth-inning deficit to win, 9-7.
The Falcons lead Ball State by a 30-24 margin, including two wins in 1999, the last time the teams met. This year's scheduled twinbill in Muncie was cancelled due to inclement weather.
GETTING OFFENSIVE: Heading into the MAC Tournament, Bowling Green is averaging 4.33 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__46____199___4.33 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
ROUHANA NAMED MAC SCHOLAR: Junior Nikki Rouhana was named the Mid-American Conference Scholar-Athlete of the week, the league office announced Tuesday (May 9) ... Rouhana earned the honor, given to just one male and one female student-athlete (regardless of sport) each week, for the first time in her BG career ... she hit .455 in the Falcons' series at Ohio last weekend.
2000 MAC STANDINGS:
East Division Team (Overall)____________MAC Bowling Green (30-16)____13-7 Marshall (25-25)_________13-7 Akron (29-19)____________12-8 Ohio (18-28)____________10-11 Kent (21-28)_____________9-13 Miami (16-30)____________5-15West Division Northern Ill. (32-20)____19-3 Central Michigan (27-11)_15-5 Ball State (20-28)_______9-11 Western Michigan (14-31)_7-13 Eastern Michigan (19-29)_6-15 Toledo (11-26)___________5-15
BG IN THE MAC TOURNAMENT: The Falcons will be making the sixth MAC Tournament appearance in school history ... BGSU has qualified for the league tourney for the third consecutive year ... this year marks the 10th league tournament, which was held from 1982-86 before a hiatus of nearly a decade ... Bowling Green has compiled an all-time MAC Tournament mark of 4-10, having gone 1-2 in the first four trips and 0-2 last year ... the Falcons participated in the league tourney in 1982 (the inaugural tourney), 1985 and 1986, prior to the current three-year run ... in three of the team's first four trips, BG won the first game before losing the next two ... a game-by-game listing, with opponent, result and score:
1982 MAC Tournament: Ball State W 1-0 Western Michigan L 1-7 Central Michigan L 2-51985 MAC Tournament: Central Michigan L 3-7 Northern Illinois W 3-2 Toledo L 0-2
1986 MAC Tournament: Toledo W 2-0 Central Michigan L 2-12 Ohio L 2-3
1998 MAC Tournament: Northern Illinois W 3-0 Central Michigan L 3-8 Kent L 1-11
1999 MAC Tournament: Eastern Michigan L 0-1 Kent L 1-2
at Ohio 3, BGSU 2: The host Bobcats scored three unearned runs in the third inning for the win Friday (May 5) ... BG had taken a 1-0 lead on a second-inning homer by junior Nikki Rouhana ... the Falcons scored an unearned run in the third before OU's uprising in the bottom of the frame ... BG had only three hits ... Falcon freshman McKenna Houle threw a complete-game five-hitter, but gave up four of those hits in the third inning.
at Ohio 4-6, BGSU 2-8: The Falcons split a Saturday (May 6) twinbill to tie for the East Division title ... in the first game, a pair of Ohio homers gave the Bobcats the win ... BG's runs both came when senior Erin Zwinck had a bloop single to score junior Jen Domschot ... senior Carmen Hitterdal also scored after the OU outfielders misplayed the ball ... McKenna Houle took the loss in relief ... in the nightcap, BG pounded out a season-high 16 hits ... the Falcons had seven hits over the first two innings, but scored just two runs ... the hosts tied the score, but BG had four extra-base hits to score four runs in the fifth ... that inning was capped off by Jen Domschot's two-run homer ... OU came right back with three runs in the bottom of the inning, but the Falcons put the game away with a pair of seventh-inning markers ... both Zwinck and sophomore Renee Rosemeier had three hits.
at BGSU 7-4, Cleveland State 6-0: The Brown and Orange ended the regular season with Monday's (May 8) sweep of the Vikings ... in the first game, the Falcons rallied from a 4-0 deficit, tying the game at 6-6 with four fifth-inning runs ... BGSU won it with a run in the bottom of the seventh ... freshman Jess Jenkins led off with an infield single, part of her first career two-hit game ... junior Nikki Rouhana bunted Jenkins to second, where she scored on a single by freshman Kandice Machain ... the RBI gave Machain her first-ever two-RBI game ... sophomore Andrea Genter picked up the win ... she surrendered three runs (two earned) in 6 2/3 innings of relief ... in the nightcap, freshman McKenna Houle threw a five-hit shutout, and junior Morgan LaNicca had her first-ever two-RBI game ... LaNicca entered the day with a career total of two runs batted in.
FALCON FACTS: BGSU junior Jen Domschot hit a two-run homer in the 8-6 win at Ohio Saturday (May 6), in the process tying the school single-season record for round-trippers ... she now has five this year, matching the record set by Amy Lienhardt in 1988 and tied by Lynsey Ebel last spring ... BGSU pounded out a season-high 16 hits in that win at OU ... the Falcons lost a series against an East Division foe for the first time this year ... BGSU went 1-2 at Ohio after going 3-0 vs. Kent, 2-1 against both Akron and Marshall, and 3-1 vs. Miami ... against the MAC Tournament field, BGSU posted a record of 4-4 ... in addition to the aforementioned results vs. the Zips and Thundering Herd, the Brown and Orange went 0-2 vs. Northern Illinois ... BGSU did not play either of the team's possible opening opponents ... the Falcons' scheduled twinbill at Ball State was cancelled due to inclement weather, and BG was not scheduled to face Central Michigan this year ... the Falcons easily surpassed the team's victory total for all of last season ... BGSU is 30-16 after going 21-27 in 1999 ... senior 3B/DP Erin Zwinck hit a team-best .429 (27-of-63) in MAC games this season, with an on-base percentage of .478 and a .492 slugging pct. ... she is hitting a team-high .328 overall this year ... as a team, BGSU is batting .280 ... the BGSU ERA is 1.69, and opponents have hit just .232 against the Brown and Orange ... in MAC games, the Falcons batted .296 ... the Falcons have hit 17 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 87 extra-base hits to the opponents' 46 ... the Brown and Orange has outscored opponents, 35-18, in the first inning this year ... in fact, BGSU has outscored foes by a 103-48 margin over the first three innings this season, including a whopping 43-14 advantage in the third frame ... Zwinck leads the team with 14 multiple-hit games this spring, while junior Angie Domschot has 11 ... Colleen Bates and Zwinck each have eight multi-RBI games ... Bates is the school's career leader with 10 homers ... the Falcon pitching staff has recorded a total of 12 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.
MAC PRESEASON POLL: In the Mid-American Conference preseason poll, the Falcons were tabbed to finish fourth in the East Division ... ballots were cast by each of the 12 softball head coaches, with a first-place vote worth six points, a second-place vote worth five, etc. ... BGSU was chosen to win the East Division by one of the league's coaches ... BG also was picked to finish fourth by the league coaches in last year's preseason poll, but placed second ... the complete 2000 poll follows:
MAC PRESEASON POLL:
East Division (FPV) Points 1. Kent (7) 66 2. Ohio (3) 48 3. Akron (1) 47 4. Bowling Green (1) 38 5. Miami 35 6. Marshall 18West Division (FPV) Points 1. Central Mich. (8) 67 2. Northern Ill. (4) 64 3. Ball State 38 4. Eastern Michigan 36 5. Western Michigan 31 6. Toledo 16
FPV - first-place votes CMU was picked to win MAC Tournament
FALCON QUICK FACTS
UP NEXT BGSU vs. Ball State/Central Mich. Thursday, May 11 * 3:00 p.m. CDT Mary M. Bell Field * DeKalb, Ill.LAST WEEK at Ohio 3, BGSU 2 Fri., May 5 * Athens, Ohio
at Ohio 4-6, BGSU 2-8 Sat., May 6 * Athens, Ohio
at BGSI 7-4, Cleveland State 6-0 Mon., May 8 * BGSU Softball Field
2000 BGSU RECORDS Overall: 30-16 Mid-American Conference: 13-7 Finish: Tied for East Division title
HEAD COACH - Leigh Ross-Shaw (Toledo, 1992) BGSU Record: 51-43 (second year) Overall: 51-43 (second year) MAC Record: 28-18
ASSISTANT COACH - Amy Kyler (Cleveland State, 1997)
BOWLING GREEN RECORDS All-Time: 486-541-8 (.473) (1978-present / 23rd season) MAC: 233-214-1 (.521) (1983-present / through 18 seasons)
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)
