Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons To Play Five MAC Games This Week
April 09, 2002 | Softball
April 9, 2002
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
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The Bowling Green State University softball team is scheduled to play five Mid-American Conference games this week ... the Falcons (12-17-1 overall, 3-6 MAC) of fourth-year head coach Leigh Ross-Shaw are scheduled to play a Wednesday (April 10) doubleheader against the University of Akron ... first pitch of game one is set for 2:00 p.m. at the BGSU Softball Field ... the games are BGSU's last home contests until April 27.
Following the UA games, BGSU will head to Oxford for a weekend series against Miami University ... the Falcons and Redhawks will play a Saturday (April 13) doubleheader and a Sunday (April 14) single game ... starting time is 1:00 p.m. each day at the Miami Softball Field ... the Miami series marks the midpoint of BG's 24-game league schedule.
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 101-81-1 (.555) ... Ross-Shaw, the 2001 MAC Coach of the Year, has a league mark of 50-29 (.633) 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 35 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: Akron has an overall record of 19-7 after Monday's (April 8) 7-1 win at Cleveland State ... the Zips lead the MAC's East Division with a 9-1 conference record, after posting home sweeps of Ball State and Northern Illinois over the weekend ... senior pitcher Lisa Keenan threw her second career no-hitter in a win over NIU ... Keenan has an 11-4 record and an ERA of 1.18, while classmate Micah Barbato is 7-3 with a 1.73 ERA ... at the plate, junior Melissa Hurley leads the Zips with a .405 batting average and 19 RBI ... senior Kerstin Sewell has a team-high six homers on the season ... last year, UA went 21-25 overall and placed third in the MAC East with a 13-11 league record ... head coach Deanna Parks has a record of 141-96 in her sixth year in Akron ... she is 222-164 in her ninth season as a collegiate head coach ... the school's athletic web site is www.GoZips.com.
Miami enters the week with an overall mark of 11-27, and the RedHawks have a 3-7 MAC record heading into a Wednesday (April 10) doubleheader at Marshall ... MU is riding the school's first four-game winning streak since 1998, after weekend home sweeps of Kent State and Wright State ... junior Angie Gerber has a team-leading .298 batting average, and has 21 RBI, or one-third of the team's total ... she leads the RedHawks with four homer and eight doubles ... freshman pitcher Jackie Poggendorf has a 9-14 record and a team-low 3.15 ERA ... last year, MU went 18-34 overall and 8-16 in the MAC, finishing sixth in the East Division ... Angie Jacobs has a record of 60-127 in her fourth year as a collegiate head coach, all in Oxford ... the school's athletic web site is www.MURedHawks.com.
THE SERIES: BGSU leads Akron by a 32-16-1 count in the all-time series between the teams ... the Falcons have won the last five meetings, including both of last year's games, 8-5 in eight innings and 7-0 at Akron (April 18, 2001) ... the last time the Zips came to BGSU, the visitors won the first game, a come-from-behind 9-7 victory (April 14, 2000), but the Falcons swept the next day's doubleheader by scores of 7-2 and 5-3 ... Leigh Ross-Shaw has an 8-2 record vs. Akron during her head-coaching tenure.
The Falcons hold a 40-27 lead over Miami in that series ... BGSU has won the last four meetings and nine of the last 10 contests ... last year, the Brown and Orange swept a three-game series at the BGSU Softball Field, 2-1, 13-2 and 5-3 (April 27-28, 2001) ... in the last meetings in Oxford (April 25, 2000), the RedHawks won the opener by a 4-3 count, but the Falcons posted a 15-4 win in the nightcap ... Ross-Shaw has a 9-2 record against the RedHawks as a head coach.
LAST TIME(S) OUT: The Falcons dropped a 4-1 decision at #13 Michigan last Wednesday (April 3), before returning home and splitting a twinbill with Cleveland State the next day ... BGSU won the first game, 4-3, but the Vikings captured a 6-1 win in the nightcap ... on Saturday (April 6), visiting Central Michigan swept a doubleheader at the BGSU Softball Field, by scores of 3-1 and 6-1 ... then, CMU completed the sweep with a 6-5 win the next day.
ROSEMEIER HAS GOOD WEEK AT THE PLATE: Senior Renee Rosemeier had a slow start to the 2002 season, but has come around in recent weeks ... Rosemeier hit a team-best .455 last week, and batted .600 in the Central Michigan series ... she began the week with a 3-for-3 effort in an April 1 win over Oakland, with a double, a run and two RBI ... on Thursday (April 4), Rosemeier's two-run single in the bottom of the seventh inning lifted BG to a 4-3 win over Cleveland State ... her double brought home BGSU's lone run in Saturday's (April 6) first game against CMU ... then, she went 2-for-3 in the second game that day, and was 3-for-4 with a run and an RBI in Sunday's contest.
REVERSAL OF FORTUNE: Last season, Libby Voshell walked just four times while striking out 30 times ... this year, the junior has been much more selective at the plate ... Voshell drew three walks in Sunday's CMU game, upping her total to a team-high 13 bases on balls ... she has struck out 10 times this year ... perhaps not coincidentally, Voshell is hitting a team-best .344 this season after batting .209 a year ago ... her total of 13 doubles in 2002 is just four shy of the school single-season record.
NOTING THE FALCONS: As mentioned, junior Libby Voshell leads the Falcons in hitting, with a .344 average ... Voshell also paces BG in doubles (13), RBI (17), slugging pct. (.556), on-base pct. (.423) and walks (13) ... classmate Kandice Machain is batting .330 with team-best totals of 32 hits, three triples, three homers and 52 total bases ... freshman Sam Moore leads BG with 15 runs scored ... senior Andrea Genter leads the Brown and Orange with a 2.42, ERA, followed by junior McKenna Houle (2.64) and senior Jessie Milosek (2.66) ... BGSU, after starting the home portion of the schedule with a 5-0-1 record, has lost the last four games at the BGSU Softball Field ... senior Andrea Genter went 1-0 with a team-low 2.38 ERA last week ... she picked up a win over Oakland, allowing two runs (both unearned in a complete-game effort) ... then, she threw six-and-one-third innings of relief vs. Cleveland State, before going four-and-a-third innings against Central Michigan Sunday ... in the latter game, Genter took a no-hitter into the fourth inning, but wound up with a no-decision ... she struck out a team-high 15 batters in 17 2/3 innings last week ... on the year, Genter leads BG in strikeouts (36) and strikeouts per seven innings (6.7) ... Saturday marked the first time the Falcons had been swept in a home doubleheader since early in the 2000 season (Northern Illinois, April 1, 2000) ... BGSU is now 33-11 (.750) in home MAC games during the Leigh Ross-Shaw head-coaching era.
