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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Play At Arizona Classic This Weekend
February 14, 2001 | Softball
Feb. 14, 2001
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FALCONS OPEN SEASON AT PEPSI ARIZONA CLASSIC THIS WEEKEND: The Bowling Green State University softball team, coming off a Mid-American Conference East Division co-championship and a MAC Tournament runner-up finish in 2000, will open the 2001 season this weekend. The Falcons will head to Tucson, Ariz., to play five games in the Pepsi Arizona Softball Classic.
BGSU's game-by-game schedule in the tournament is as follows (all times are Eastern):
Friday, Feb. 16: vs. Pacific, 3:00 p.m. at #3 Arizona, 5:00 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 17: vs. Oklahoma State, 1:00 p.m. vs. Kentucky, 3:00 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 18: vs. New Mexico State, 11:00 a.m.
Following the team's action in Arizona, the Falcons will be idle until March 7. On that date, BGSU is scheduled to open the home portion of the schedule with a doubleheader against Dayton, beginning at 2:00 p.m. at the BGSU Softball Field.
HEAD COACH LEIGH ROSS-SHAW: Leigh Ross-Shaw enters her third season as a collegiate head coach, and has an overall record of 54-45. Ross-Shaw has a Mid-American Conference mark of 28-18 after leading the Falcons to a MAC East Division co-championship last year.
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 a high-school head coach, at Notre Dame Academy in Toledo, 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. On February 2, she was inducted into the UT Athletics Hall of Fame.
Amy Kyler enters her third 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 pitching for the Akron Racers in each of the last two seasons.
TOUGH CROWD: The Falcons are slated to play a total of 10 games against seven different teams listed in the USA Today/NFCA preseason top-25 this year ... included among those opponents are Arizona (#3), Michigan (#11) and Notre Dame (#19) among the nation's top 25, as well as four teams listed under "also receiving votes."
THE OPPONENTS: Bowling Green will be the only team opening the 2001 season at this weekend's tournament. Each of the other five teams has played at least three games in 2001.
Pacific is 2-2 on the season heading into this weekend's action. The Tigers opened the season with a pair of wins over Santa Clara before dropping a doubleheader at #15 Stanford. Freshman Jennifer Dacre threw a no-hitter in her first collegiate appearance, vs. Santa Clara. Last year, Pacific went 31-25 and finished fourth in the Big West Conference with a 15-9 mark. Head coach Brian Kolze is 223-219-1 in his 10th season, all at UOP. More information on the team can be found at www.pacifictigers.com.
Arizona, ranked third in the nation, takes a 10-0 record into its own tourney, and the Wildcats have outscored opponents by an 83-4 margin, having won four games at the Louisville Tournament in Tampa, Fla., and six more at last weekend's Fiesta Bowl Classic in Tempe, Ariz. UA has posted nine shutouts to date, with three pitchers throwing three apiece. Offensively, senior 3B Toni Mascarenas has seven homers to lead a Wildcat team that has a total of 25. UA returns eight starters and five All-Americans from a 2000 team that went 59-9 and advanced to the semifinal round of the College World Series for the 13th consecutive year. Head coach Mike Candrea is 816-168 in his 16th year with the Wildcats. For more information on the team, go to www.arizcats.com.
Oklahoma State will bring a 2-3 record to Tucson. The Cowgirls opened the season at last weekend's UTA/Isuzu InterCollegiate Classic. OSU downed Stephen F. Austin and Illinois at Chicago, but lost to Louisiana-Monroe, host Texas-Arlington and Houston. Sophomore 1B Stephanie Hodges is hitting .462 in the early going. Last year, the Cowgirls finished 33-22 overall and went 8-10 in the Big 12 Conference. Coach Sandy Fischer is 826-337-3 in her 23rd season in Stillwater. More information is available at www.okstate.com.
Kentucky brings a 1-4 record to Arizona after competing in the Texas-Arlington tourney last weekend. UK opened with a loss to defending national champion Oklahoma, and also fell to Baylor and Stephen F. Austin. The Wildcats split a pair of games vs. UT-San Antonio. A year ago, UK finished 36-29 and won the Eastern Division of the Southeastern Conference with a 15-13 league record. Head coach Beth Kirchner is 90-164 in her fifth year with the 'Cats, and has an overall mark of 162-265-1 in her ninth year. For more information, go to www.ukathletics.com.
New Mexico State is 3-8 on the season, after competing at the Fiesta Bowl Tournament in Tempe last weekend. The Aggies posted an upset of #24 Texas at that tourney. Last year, NMSU finished 27-31 overall and went 11-13 in the Big West Conference. The Aggies are now in the Sun Belt Conference. Head coach Lea Ann Jarvis has a 49-78 record in her third season. NMSU's web site is www.nmstatesports.com.
THE SERIES: The Falcons and Pacific are tied, 2-2, in the all-time series between the teams, which began in 1994. The teams' last three meetings came at the UNLV Tournament. BG posted one-run wins in 1997 and 1998 before a 6-3 UOP win in 1999.
Oklahoma State holds a 1-0 series lead, with a 1-0 victory in a 1995 game in Fullerton, Calif.
New Mexico State has won all three previous meetings with the Falcons, in a series that began in 1989. In the last meeting, in Honolulu in 1996, NMSU posted a 7-0 win.
BGSU has never met Arizona or Kentucky on the softball diamond.
HOMEWARD BOUND: The Falcons boast one Tucson native on the 2001 roster ... sophomore OF Kandice Machain is a graduate of Flowing Wells High School ... one of her former teammates, Candace Abrams, is a freshman infielder on the Arizona squad ... another Tucson native, Carmen Hitterdal, completed a four-year Falcon career last spring ... Hitterdal, a Sabino High School product, was a three-year starter in centerfield ... she finished tied for fourth in career stolen bases, with 38.
FALCONS LOOK TO BUILD UPON SUCCESSFUL 2000 SEASON: Bowling Green finished the 2000 season with an overall record of 33-18, and a Mid-American Conference slate of 13-7 ... the Falcons tied for the MAC's East Division title, then recorded the best MAC Tournament effort in school history, rallying to finish second after losing the opening game ... the Brown and Orange lost just four players off the 2000 squad.
GREAT RECORD: The Falcons ended the 2000 season with a total of 33 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 winning percentage of .647 last year ranks 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).
FALCONS HAVE FOUR ON 2000 ALL-MAC TEAM: BG had four players named to the All-MAC Team last year, as voted by the league's head coaches ... Erin Zwinck and Nikki Rouhana made the first team, while Colleen Bates and Jen Domschot earned second-team honors ... both Rouhana and Jen Domschot return in 2001 ... Rouhana hit .320 in the regular season, and her .373 average in conference action placed second on the team behind Zwinck ... in league play, Rouhana hit a team-best .569 ... Jen Domschot hit .321 in the regular season, and hit .333 with a .556 slugging pct. in league action ... she earned second-team honors for the second time in her career.
HOMER HAPPY: Jen Domschot set a new school record by hitting six homers last season ... her sixth broke a scoreless tie in the sixth inning of a MAC Tournament win over Akron (May 13) ... that homer broke the record of five round-trippers that she shared with three other players ... Colleen Bates was one of those players, having hit her fifth of the season the day before in a win over Marshall ... Amy Lienhardt (1988) was the first Falcon to hit five homers in a season, and Lynsey Ebel matched that mark in 1999.
HOMER HAPPY II: Entering the Leigh Ross-Shaw (head-coaching) Era, the BGSU single-season record for homers was eight ... Ross-Shaw's first team obliterated that mark by hitting 19 round-trippers in 1999 ... not to be outdone, the 2000 squad matched that record.
HOMER HAPPY III: Colleen Bates ended her career as the BGSU all-time leader in homers ... her final homer, hit in a MAC Tournament win over Marshall, gave her a career total of 11 ... Jen Domschot and Lynsey Ebel are part of a second-place tie with eight career homers each entering the 2001 season.
ACADEMIC HONORS: Three Falcon student-athletes were selected to the 2000 GTE Academic All-District IV University Division Softball Team ... senior Erin Zwinck was named to the first team, while Jessie Milosek and Nikki Rouhana earned second-team honors ... Zwinck, who made the GTE district team for the third consecutive year, went on to earn All-America First-Team laurels ... Milosek and Rouhana each earned all-district honors for the first time.
GETTING OFFENSIVE: Bowling Green averaged 4.24 runs per game last year, the second-highest total in school history ... the only BGSU team 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 list of top-scoring Falcon teams follows:
Year__GP__Runs__Avg. 1981 28 147 5.25 2000 51 216 4.24 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
GOOD PITCHING, TOO: The Falcons' offense was quite productive last year, but BGSU could not have enjoyed success without solid pitching as well ... the Falcon staff, comprised of a freshman and three sophomores, had a team earned-run average of 1.72, and each of the four hurlers threw at least one complete-game shutout ... freshman McKenna Houle and soph Jessie Milosek each had 11 wins and two saves, while Andrea Genter had eight victories and Rebekah Tipton won all three of her decisions ... Houle led the team with a 1.16 ERA, while Milosek had 12 complete games and was in on seven shutouts.
