Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Continue Eight-Game Road Swing
April 17, 2002 | Softball
April 17, 2002
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
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The Bowling Green State University softball team continues an eight-game stretch away from the friendly confines of the BGSU Softball Field ... the Falcons (14-20-1 overall, 5-9 Mid-American Conference) of fourth-year head coach Leigh Ross-Shaw step outside of MAC play with a Thursday (April 18) game at Notre Dame University ... the teams are scheduled to play a 3:00 p.m. contest at UND's Ivy Field.
Following the Notre Dame game, BGSU will make the short trip north for a Sunday (April 21) doubleheader vs. the arch-rival University of Toledo ... the Falcons and Rockets will meet in a 1:00 p.m. start at UT's Scott Park ... next week, BGSU will travel to Ball State before returning home for a three-game weekend series vs. Buffalo.
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 103-84-1 (.551) ... Ross-Shaw, the 2001 MAC Coach of the Year, has a league mark of 52-32 (.619) 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 in conference games of any coach in BGSU softball history, and was the fastest coach in BG annals to get to 100 overall wins as well as 50 MAC victories ... Ross-Shaw is just 33 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: Notre Dame enters the week with an overall record of 22-13 ... the Fighting Irish, in the midst of a 12-game homestand, will face Indiana State in a Wednesday (April 17) doubleheader before entertaining the Falcons ... UND is 9-1 in Big East Conference play after splitting a doubleheader with Syracuse on Sunday afternoon (April 14) ... the 3-0 loss in the nightcap snapped a 14-game winning streak for the Irish ... junior 3B Andrea Loman leads the team with a .347 batting average, while junior 1B Lisa Mattison is hitting .337 ... freshman pitcher Steffany Stenglein is 14-9 with a 1.96 ERA ... Notre Dame is 7-1 at home this season after going 18-0 in home games last year ... in 2001, UND went 54-7 overall and had a perfect 20-0 Big East record ... the team advanced to the NCAA Tournament ... Deanna Gumpf is in her first season as a collegiate head coach ... the school's athletic web site is www.und.com.
Toledo currently has an overall mark of 10-26-1 after a pair of losses to Detroit Monday (April 15) ... the Rockets own a 1-11 MAC record heading into a home twinbill vs. Akron Saturday (April 20) ... UT dropped three games at Central Michigan over the weekend, including a 2-1, nine-inning verdict in the final contest ... senior 1B Deanna House leads the Rockets at the plate, with a batting average of .330 ... pitchers Collette McMasters, a senior, and freshman Kim Pettitt have split the bulk of the time in the circle ... McMasters is 4-10 with a 2.62 ERA, while Pettitt has a 4-13 mark and an ERA of 3.62 ... last year, UT went 19-36 overall and 2-22 in the MAC, finishing sixth in the West Division ... Michelle Fagnant has a record of 40-88-1 in her third year with the Rockets ... she is 147-153-1 in her seventh year as a collegiate head coach ... the school's athletic web site is www.utrockets.com.
THE SERIES: The Falcons trail Notre Dame, 7-6, in the all-time series between the teams ... the Fighting Irish have won the last two games, a sweep of a twinbill in South Bend in the teams' last meetings (4-3 and 2-1, March 28, 1999) ... Leigh Ross-Shaw has a record of 0-2 against the Irish during her head-coaching tenure.
BGSU leads Toledo by a 38-31 count in that series ... the Falcons have won the last seven meetings, including all three of last year's games in Bowling Green (7-1 and 9-1 on March 27, 4-3 on May 1) ... the Rockets swept a doubleheader the last time the teams met in the Glass City, however, winning by scores of 2-0 and 4-2 in a pair of non-conference games (April 28, 1998) ... Ross-Shaw has a 7-0 record vs. UT during her head-coaching tenure.
LAST TIME(S) OUT: The Falcons went 2-3 in MAC action last week ... BGSU split a Wednesday (April 10) twinbill with East Division-leading Akron, with the Zips taking a 5-1 verdict and the Falcons winning the nightcap, 3-2 ... BGSU headed to Miami and dropped a Saturday (April 13) doubleheader by scores of 1-0 and 5-3 ... after seeing the third game of the series postponed by rain on Sunday, the Falcons returned to the diamond for a 4-1 win over the RedHawks Monday (April 15).
YOU LOOK VERY FAMILIAR...: Fans of both the Falcons and Rockets should recognize some familiar faces in the opposing dugout when the teams meet Sunday ... all three members of the BGSU coaching staff -- head coach Leigh Ross-Shaw and assistants Lena Richards and Tami (Johnston) Summers -- earned All-MAC honors for UT, and Summers returned to her alma mater as head coach in 1998 and 1999 ... UT's current head coach, Michelle Fagnant, served as associate head coach under Summers during those two years ... one of Fagnant's current assistants, Jeni Leis, played four seasons for the Falcons, completing her career in 1993.
GENTER EARNS ACADEMIC HONOR: Senior Andrea Genter was one of four Falcon student-athletes honored at the BGSU Student-Athlete Honors Banquet Sunday evening (April 14) ... the banquet recognizes the top junior and senior student-athletes in the Falcon athletic department ... Genter is the recipient of the 2001-02 Female Scholar-Athlete-of-the-Year Award ... she maintains an overall grade point average of 3.97 as an early childhood education major ... Genter was named to the Verizon Academic All-District Second Team as a junior, and was named to the MAC Honor Roll as both a sophomore and a junior ... neither of those teams have yet been announced for the 2002 season.
MILOSEK ASSERTS HERSELF: Senior Jessie Milosek had a solid week for the Falcons, pitching well in each of her three starts last week ... Milosek had a 2-1 record and a 1.40 ERA, throwing a complete game in each of her three starts ... her lone loss of the week was a complete-game two-hitter at Miami Saturday (April 13) ... she took a shutout into the seventh inning of each of the other two games, both wins, and allowed opponents to hit just .178 against her on the week ... she walked just two batters while striking out 13 in 20 innings, and did not walk a single hitter in the two games at MU ... she had a 1.08 ERA against the RedHawks ... Milosek, who has thrown a complete game in each of her six MAC starts, has a record of 7-4 on the year.
NOTING THE FALCONS: Junior Libby Voshell leads the Falcons in hitting, with a .330 average ... Voshell also paces BG in doubles (13), RBI (18), slugging pct. (.515), on-base pct. (.402) and walks (13) ... classmate Kandice Machain is batting .307 with team-high totals of 35 hits, three triples, three homers, 114 at-bats and 55 total bases ... freshman Sam Moore leads BG with 16 runs scored ... in the circle, senior Jessie Milosek leads the Brown and Orange with seven wins and an ERA of 2.33 ... Milosek has a record of 7-4, while senior Andrea Genter is 2-1 with a 2.37 ERA ... junior McKenna Houle has a 4-10 mark and a 2.84 ERA, and leads BGSU in innings pitched (81 1/3) ... BGSU, after starting the home portion of the schedule with a 5-0-1 record, then lost five consecutive games at the BGSU Softball Field ... but, BG rebounded for a 3-2 win over East Division-leading Akron in Wednesday's (April 10) nightcap ... sophomore Jenifer Kernahan and redshirt freshman Marla Murphy combined for 11 hits in 18 at-bats last week ... Kernahan hit .667 (6-for-9) on the week, while Murphy batted .556 (5-for-9) ... Murphy had her first career three-hit game in the win over UA, going 3-for-3, while Kernahan had identical numbers at Miami Monday, for her first three-hit game of the year ... senior Holly Frantz hit her first career homer in Monday's win at Miami ... classmate Natalie Phillips hit .389 last week, and batted .417 in the Miami series ... she scored three of BG's seven runs in the three games in Oxford ... Phillips had the game-winning double in the victory over Akron ... she is hitting .306 in MAC play, with a team-high five doubles among her 15 hits in league games ... she is tied for the team lead in the latter category ... BGSU entered the Miami series with a total of 14 stolen bases on the season, but went 6-for-6 in that department in Saturday's DH, and 7-for-7 in the series.
