Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Set To Open MAC Play Saturday
March 18, 2003 | Softball
March 18, 2003
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
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The Bowling Green State University softball team, having returned north after a 10-day, 13-game spring trip, now prepares to open Mid-American Conference play ... the Falcons (8-9-1) of fifth-year head coach Leigh Ross-Shaw are scheduled to head to Kalamazoo for a Saturday (March 22) doubleheader vs. Western Michigan University ... first pitch of game one is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. at Fran Ebert Field.
Following the WMU twinbill, the Falcons are scheduled to open the home portion of the season with a doubleheader vs. the University of Michigan on Tuesday, March 25 ... action is slated to start at 2:00 p.m. at the BGSU Softball Field ... the Falcons are also scheduled to play a DH vs. the University of Detroit Mercy on Wednesday, March 26, at 2:30 p.m., before heading to Central Michigan University for a three-game series on March 29-30.
BGSU is coming off a 2002 season that saw the team go 22-25-1 overall and 11-13 in MAC play ... the Falcons missed the MAC Tournament for the first time since 1997 ... Ross-Shaw returned 10 letterwinners, including five starters, from that squad.
HEIMRICH NAMED MAC PLAYER OF THE WEEK
BGSU freshman Lindsay Heimrich has been named the Mid-American Conference Player of the Week, the conference office announced late Monday (March 17) ... she earns the honor for the first time in her Falcon career ... Heimrich, a native of Waterville, Ohio (Anthony Wayne HS), hit a team-high .579 as the Falcons completed spring-trip action in the states of Kentucky and Virginia last week ... she had 11 hits in 19 at-bats, including a 3-for-3 game vs. Morehead State and three additional two-hit games ... Heimrich, who made one start at first base and has started the last five games at the designated-player spot, also made her collegiate pitching debut last week, and saw action in two games in the circle.
HEAD COACH LEIGH ROSS-SHAW
Leigh Ross-Shaw is in her fifth season as a collegiate head coach, all with the Falcons, and has an overall record of 119-98-2 (.546) ... Ross-Shaw, the 2001 MAC Coach of the Year, has a league mark of 58-36 (.617) ... she guided the Brown and Orange to a MAC East Division title in 2001 and a co-championship in 2000 ... Ross-Shaw 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 17 wins shy of the school's all-time leader, Jacquie Joseph (136-123 from 1989-93) ... Ross-Shaw's total of 58 MAC wins places her third behind Joseph (78-71) and Rachel Miller-Reif (71-84 from 1994-98).
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), posted four-straight winning MAC marks from 1998-2001.
Ross-Shaw, a 1992 graduate of the University of Toledo, still holds numerous UT and MAC records, and remains the all-time league 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.
ASSISTANT COACHES
Tami Summers is in her second season as a BGSU assistant ... 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 ... Steve Babinski is in his first campaign as an assistant to Ross-Shaw ... Babinski, a graduate of Grace (Ind.) College, was a standout baseball player there ... he has spent the past several years coaching at the Bowling Green Christian Academy.
LAST TIME(S) OUT
The Falcons concluded the spring trip with a 2-4 record in last weekend's (March 14-16) Cavalier Classic ... the Brown and Orange swept a doubleheader from Stony Brook, but lost two games to both Seton Hall and host Virginia ... BGSU lost a 1-0 game to the Cavaliers on Thursday (March 13), then opened the tourney with 6-3 and 2-1 losses to Seton Hall the next day ... the Brown and Orange blanked Stony Brook, 6-0 and 8-0 (second game five innings), in Saturday action, but lost Sunday's DH to UVa by scores of 9-2 and 5-3.
THE OPPONENT
Western Michigan enters the week with an overall record of 9-8 ... the Broncos are scheduled to play a Tuesday (March 18) doubleheader at Oakland before hosting Valparaiso for a pair of games the next day, prior to meeting the Falcons this weekend ... junior Kelly Barnett leads the team with a .413 batting average entering the week ... as a team, WMU is hitting .302, but so are the opponents ... senior Leah Seffernick has six of the team's nine wins in the circle, with a 6-2 record and a team-low 2.58 earned-run average ... last year, WMU went 22-24 overall and 11-10 in the MAC, good for fourth place in the league's West Division ... the Broncos qualified for the MAC Tournament ... head coach Kathy Leitke has a record of 44-66-1 in her third year in Kalamazoo ... she is 356-233-1 in her 12th year overall ... the school's athletics web site is www.wmubroncos.com.
THE SERIES
The Falcons trail the all-time series with Western Michigan by a 31-19 margin, and the Broncos hold an 18-12 lead in games played at WMU ... believe it or else, the teams have not met since the 2000 season ... that year, the host Falcons swept the Broncos, 5-0 and 4-1, in a doubleheader (March 31, 2000) ... in the most recent meetings in Kalamazoo, the the teams split a twinbill, with WMU taking a 1-0 win and the Brown and Orange capturing the nightcap, 2-1 (April 10, 1998) ... overall, BGSU has now won three-straight games in the series after losing eight consecutive contests.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
The Falcons enter the week with a record of 8-9-1 ... BGSU is 3-4-1 in road games and 5-5 in neutral-site action ... as a team, the Brown and Orange is hitting .273, while the opponents are batting .239 ... freshman Lindsay Heimrich is hitting .440 in 25 at-bats on the season, while both freshman Gina Rango and senior Libby Voshell are hitting .407 ... Rango and Voshell, both 22-of-54 this year, have three homers apiece to tie for the club lead ... Rango has scored 14 runs and has 11 RBI, pacing the team in both categories ... Voshell has 11 runs and 10 RBI to place second on both lists ... junior Jenifer Kernahan also has driven in 10 runs this year ... Rango, Voshell and senior Kandice Machain are the only Falcons to have started all 18 games to date ... Falcon pitchers have a combined ERA of 2.74 this season, to the opponents' 2.72 ... freshman Liz Vrabel has a 1.60 ERA, and has a 5-3 record with three complete-game shutouts ... she leads the Falcons with 49 strikeouts ... sophomore Kristen Anderson is 2-0 with a 2.14 ERA, while junior Jody Johnson has a 1-2 record, one save and an ERA of 2.84.
GOOSE EGGS
Falcon pitchers have put together some impressive shutout streaks in the season's early going ... in the opening weekend (Feb. 14-16), BG pitchers blanked opponents for 19 consecutive innings at the New Mexico State Tournament ... then, BGSU's hurlers had a shutout streak lasting 25 2/3 innings in the early portion of the team's spring trip ... the Falcons now have seven shutouts this year, after posting a total of one during all of last season.
GOOSE EGGS II
Freshman Liz Vrabel put together a nice streak of her own, before it was snapped vs. Virginia Sunday (March 16) ... Vrabel went 25 2/3 innings, covering seven appearances, without allowing an earned run ... in her 10 outings this season, she has not allowed an earned run in eight ... Vrabel matched her season high with a 10-strikeout performance in her complete-game three-hit shutout vs. Stony Brook.
ANDERSON JOINS THE CLUB
Sophomore Kristen Anderson became the third Falcon pitcher to throw a complete-game shutout this year, allowing only five hits in a win over Stony Brook ... freshman Liz Vrabel has thrown three complete-game shutouts to date this season, while junior Jody Johnson has one ... additionally, senior McKenna Houle has combined on a shutout this season ... as mentioned, the Falcons already have seven shutouts this year.
HEIMRICH HITS
Freshman Lindsay Heimrich saw the first extended action of her Falcon career last week ... Heimrich entered the week having played in just two games in her brief collegiate career ... on the week, she played in seven games, starting six, and hit a team-high .579 ... Heimrich's 11-of-19 performance included a 3-for-3 performance vs. Morehead State in which she scored three of BGSU's five runs ... she also had three two-hit games on the week, and currently has a six-game hitting streak ... for her efforts, Heimrich was named the MAC Player of the Week.
GO WEST
Saturday's doubleheader at Western Michigan will mark BGSU's first MAC softball contests as a member of the conference's West Division ... the Falcons, who have played in the East Division since the MAC went to a divisional format five years ago, moved to the West for the 2002-03 academic year ... the move was a result of the MAC's adding the University of Central Florida as a football-only member and placing UCF in the East Division.
VOSHELL KEEPS MOVING UP CAREER LISTS
Senior Libby Voshell continues to move up a number of BGSU career lists ... Voshell now has 37 doubles to rank third on that Falcon list ... she needs four more to tie Angie Domschot (1998-2001) for second place, and is 10 behind record-holder Dena Romstadt (1990-93) ... Voshell slammed her 10th homerun vs. Stony Brook, and ranks fourth on that BGSU list ... Lynsey Ebel (1998-2001) holds the school record with 14 round-trippers ... Voshell also ranks among the career leaders in runs batted in (71; T-10th) and batting average (.284; 16th).
OTHERS ON CAREER CHARTS
In addition to Voshell, several other Falcons can be found on the school's career charts ... senior Kandice Machain has moved onto the list for career runs scored ... she is tied for 16th, with 64 runs ... Machain is also on the school lists for doubles (20; T-14th), triples (seven; T-12th), homers (three; T-16th) and batting average (.282; 17th) ... junior Jenifer Kernahan and freshman Gina Rango are also on the homers list ... Kernahan, with four, is tied for 12th all-time, while Rango, like Machain, is tied for 16th with three ... senior McKenna Houle is ranked on every pitching list, including appearances (74; T-eighth), games started (52; T-ninth), innings (359 1/3; ninth), wins (29; T-seventh), strikeouts (183; sixth), saves (two; T-ninth), shutouts (10; fifth) and ERA (2.10; ninth) ... junior Jody Johnson is on the career lists for strikeouts (92; 12th) and saves (three; T-seventh).
FALCONS PICKED FOURTH IN WEST
The Falcons were picked to finish fourth in the MAC's West Division in the preseason coaches' poll ... BGSU moves to the West Division after five seasons in the East ... the complete poll follows, with first-place votes and total points received ...
West Division 1 - Central Michigan (11) 89 2 - Ball State (1) 67 3 - Northern Illinois (1) 61 4 - Bowling Green 56 5 - Western Michigan 51 6 - Eastern Michigan 23 7 - Toledo 17East Division 1 - Ohio (3) 62 2 - Marshall (3) 56 3 - Akron (3) 53 4 - Kent State (4) 52 5 - Buffalo 26 6 - Miami 24
Predicted MAC Tournament winner: CMU 9; BSU, NIU, Ohio 1
NOTING THE FALCONS
Senior Libby Voshell is hitting .440 with runners on base this season (25 at-bats), while freshman Lindsay Heimrich is hitting .545 with two outs (11 AB) ... Voshell is batting .692 (13 AB) when leading off an inning ... the Falcons are outscoring opponents, 13-0, in the fourth inning this year, and BG has an 18-3 advantage in the fifth inning to date ... Voshell has had at least one hit in 14 of this year's 18 games, including in 13 of the last 16 contests.
