Bowling Green State University Athletics
Softball Prepares To Host EMU, Marshall
March 20, 2002 | Softball
March 20, 2002
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
Complete Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
The Bowling Green State University softball team, after playing 10 games in the state of Florida last week, returns to Ohio to open the home portion of the 2002 schedule ... the Falcons (7-9 overall) of fourth-year head coach Leigh Ross-Shaw are scheduled to play five games at home this week, beginning with a Thursday (March 21) doubleheader against Eastern Michigan University ... the first pitch of game one is slated for 2:00 p.m. at the BGSU Softball Field ... although both teams are Mid-American Conference members, the games are not part of the conference schedule ... the Falcons and Eagles were not scheduled to play in MAC competition in 2002, so the respective coaches agreed to play Thursday's non-conference games.
Following the EMU doubleheader, the Brown and Orange will open MAC action with a three-game weekend series against Marshall University ... the teams will play a Saturday (March 23) doubleheader, followed by a single game Sunday (March 24) ... starting time is set for 1:00 p.m. each day.
BGSU is coming off a 2001 season that saw the team go 35-19 overall and 19-5 in Mid-American Conference play ... the Falcons won the MAC's East Division by three games ... BGSU's total of 35 wins tied for the second-most victories in school history.
HEAD COACH LEIGH ROSS-SHAW: Leigh Ross-Shaw is in her fourth season as a collegiate head coach, all with the Falcons, and has an overall record of 96-73 (.568) ... Ross-Shaw, the 2001 MAC Coach of the Year, has a league mark of 47-23 (.671) after leading the Brown and Orange to a MAC East Division title last year and a co-championship in 2000 ... she has the best winning percentage, both overall and in conference games, of any coach in BGSU softball history ... she is just 40 wins shy of the school's all-time leader, Jacquie Joseph.
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 August of 1996 after serving as a high-school head coach, at Notre Dame Academy in Toledo, for four seasons.
Ross-Shaw is the only coach in school history to string together three consecutive winning seasons in MAC play ... the Falcons, who also had a winning league ledger in Ross-Shaw's last year as an assistant (1998), have posted four-straight winning MAC marks for the first time ever.
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 ... in February of 2001, she was inducted into the UT Athletics Hall of Fame.
Lena Richards and Tami Summers each are in their first season as Ross-Shaw's assistants ... Richards, a native of East Lansing, Mich., played two years of softball at UT, earning All-MAC First-Team honors in both 1995 and 1996 ... Summers, a native of Tallmadge, Ohio, was a four-year letterwinner for the Rockets from 1984-87 ... she set school career records for appearances, innings pitched, strikeouts, ERA and winning pct. (.703) ... Summers returned to her alma mater, serving as head coach in 1998 and 1999.
THE OPPONENTS: Eastern Michigan has a 5-10 record on the season, and the Eagles will enter the BGSU games on a two-game winning streak ... EMU swept a doubleheader at Dayton last Wednesday (March 13) ... freshman Tiffany Brown leads the team in batting, with a .375 average ... another frosh, Lauren Allen, has three of the Eagles' four homers this year ... pitcher Marcy Mobley, a senior, has a 3-2 record and a 2.49 ERA in her first season after transferring from Ball State ... last year, EMU went 15-34 overall and finished fourth in the MAC's West Division with a league mark of 8-16 ... Nancy Oestrike has a record of 93-183 in her sixth year with the Eagles ... she is 163-221-4 in her ninth season as a collegiate head coach ... the school's athletic web site is www.emich.edu/goeagles.
Marshall will come to BGSU with a 7-11 record this year ... the Thundering Herd has won four of the last seven games, including a 2-2 mark in the team's own tournament last weekend (March 15-16) ... senior Nichole Corrigan and sophomore Sierra Davenport lead the team in hitting, with respective averages of .339 and .333 ... in the circle, Davenport is 2-1 with a 1.52 ERA, while freshman Randi Nielson has pitched a team-high 51 1/3 innings ... Nielson has a 2-5 mark and a 2.18 ERA ... last year, MU went 35-23 overall, tying for third place in the MAC's East Division with a 15-9 league ledger ... head coach Shonda Stanton, 67-61 in her third year at Marshall, is 94-86 in her fourth season as a collegiate head coach ... MU's athletic web site is www.HerdZone.com.
THE SERIES: The Falcons lead Eastern Michigan, 35-27, in the all-time series between the teams ... the Falcons and Eagles have not met in over two years, since a 6-3 EMU win in Miami, Fla., in BGSU's 2000 season opener (March 3, 2000) ... the Eagles, in fact, have won the last three games in the series, including a MAC Tournament victory in 1999 (2-1, May 13, 1999) ... in the last games at the BGSU Softball Field (April 25, 1998), the Falcons swept a doubleheader by the scores of 4-2 and 2-1 ... in fact, BGSU had won 11 consecutive meetings with EMU prior to the Eagles' current three-game winning streak.
BGSU holds a 13-1 advantage over Marshall in that series ... the teams have met just three times in Bowling Green, with the Falcons winning all three matchups ... overall, BGSU has won the last five meetings, including all three 2001 games in Huntington (March 30-31) ... in the most recent meeting in BGSU, a Colleen Bates "walk-off" homer gave the Falcons a 5-4 victory (April 16, 1999).
LAST TIME(S) OUT: The Falcons posted a 5-5 record at the Rebel Spring Games in the Orlando, Fla., area (March 11-16) ... BGSU recorded wins over Rider, Monmouth, Yale, Bucknell and Tennessee Martin, with three of those wins coming in the Falcons' final at-bat ... the Brown and Orange suffered losses to Colorado State, Pennsylvania, Austin Peay, Mississippi and George Mason.
VOSHELL NAMED MAC PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Junior shortstop Libby Voshell was been named the Mid-American Conference Player of the Week, the league office announced Monday (March 18) ... Voshell earns the honor for the first time in her collegiate career ... she hit .364 on BGSU's spring trip to the state of Florida ... Voshell had a slugging percentage of .606 and led the Falcons with five doubles and a homerun as BG went 5-5 at the Rebel Spring Games ... Voshell also led BGSU with four walks, and had an on-base pct. of .432.
Voshell had five multiple-hit games on the trip, including four in a row ... she had a three-hit game, including a pair of doubles, in the Falcons' 6-5 win over Yale (March 13), and had two hits (both doubles), two walks and three RBI vs. Colorado State (March 11) ... Voshell had two hits and two RBI vs. UT Martin (March 14), and also had two-hit games vs. Bucknell (March 14) and Mississippi (March 16).
On the season, Voshell is hitting .373 with nine doubles, a .608 slugging pct., a .421 on-base pct. and 11 RBI, and she leads the team in each of those five categories ... Voshell entered the season with a career total of 16 doubles ... she has scored eight runs this season after scoring a total of six during all of last year ... Voshell, who drew four walks in all of 2001, matched that total in last week's action, and has five bases on balls this year.
WALK IT OFF: The Falcons won back-to-back games in dramatic fashion last week ... against Yale (March 13), BG fell behind by a run after the Bulldogs scored in the top of the eighth inning ... but, the Falcons scored twice in the bottom of the frame, with the game-winning run coming on a Libby Voshell double ... the next day, BGSU won on another "walk-off" hit, as a single by freshman Sara "Sam" Moore plated the game-winning run in a 2-1 victory over Bucknell ... BG won one other game in its last at-bat on the trip, beating Rider, 7-6, on senior Renee Rosemeier's RBI single in the top of the seventh inning (March 11).
MACHAIN'S A MACHINE: Junior outfielder Kandice Machain had quite a week at the plate during the Falcons' trip to Florida ... Machain hit a team-best .448, with 13 hits in 29 at-bats ... she led the team in batting average, hits, slugging pct. (.621) and on-base pct. (.484) during those 10 games ... Machain's week included five multi-hit games in the eight games in which she saw action ... she had a career-high four hits in five at-bats vs. Colorado State, and followed that with a 2-for-4 effort against Austin Peay, with a double and a triple in that game ... in her first four games in Florida, Machain had 10 hits in 17 at-bats (.588) ... on the year, she is third on the team with a .333 batting average.
PHILLIPS GETS HER CHANCE: Senior Natalie Phillips hit .286 at the Rebel Spring games, with eight hits, including three doubles, and five runs batted in ... her totals for last week alone topped the statistics for her first three years combined ... Phillips entered the year with totals of seven hits, one double and one RBI ... she had 38 career at-bats over those three years ... this season, Phillips is hitting .243 (9-for-37) with four doubles and seven RBI ... she ranks third on the team in the latter category.
CRYSTAL-CLEAR (i.e., GOOD) EYE AT THE PLATE: So far this season, junior Crystal Wilson has shown a knack for getting hits with runners on base ... Wilson is hitting .298 on the year, and is second on the team with 10 RBI ... Wilson had a career total of eight RBI in her first two years ... she entered this year with a total of three extra-base hits, and already has doubled that, with four doubles and a pair of triples.
HOME COOKIN': The Falcons have experienced a great deal of success in home games over the past few years ... BGSU finished with a 13-3 record in home contests last season ... the Falcons went 11-2 vs. MAC opponents at the BGSU Softball Field, and have won 18 of the last 20 home games vs. league foes ... in Leigh Ross-Shaw's head-coaching tenure, the Falcons have a record of 36-10 (.783) at the BGSU Softball Field, including a 30-8 (.789) mark against the MAC.
