Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Host U-M To Begin Busy Week
March 24, 2003 | Softball
March 24, 2003
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
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The Bowling Green State University softball team, having opened Mid-American Conference play last weekend, has a busy schedule this week, weather permitting ... the Falcons (8-11-1, 0-2 MAC) of fifth-year head coach Leigh Ross-Shaw are scheduled to open the home portion of the 2003 schedule with a Tuesday (March 25) doubleheader against the nationally-ranked University of Michigan ... first pitch of game one between the Falcons and #15 Wolverines is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. at the BGSU Softball Field.
Following the U-M twinbill, the Falcons host the University of Detroit Mercy in Wednesday (March 26) action ... that doubleheader is scheduled for a 2:30 p.m. start ... this weekend, the Brown and Orange will return to MAC play with a three-game series at defending champion Central Michigan University ... the Falcons and Chippewas are slated to play a Saturday (March 29) doubleheader and a Sunday (March 30) single game at the CMU Softball Complex, with action beginning at 1:00 p.m. each day ... the Central series completes a stretch of nine consecutive games against teams from the state of Michigan ... 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.
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 119-100-2 (.541) ... Ross-Shaw, the 2001 MAC Coach of the Year, has a league mark of 58-38 (.604) ... 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 OUT
The Falcons opened MAC play last weekend, dropping a pair of Saturday (March 22) games at Western Michigan ... the Broncos took the first game, 4-3, then captured the second contest by an 8-3 count.
THE OPPONENTS
Michigan enters the week with an overall record of 15-6 ... the Wolverines, ranked #15 in last Tuesday's ESPN.com/USA Softball poll, have won nine consecutive games, with the last four coming by shutout ... U-M blanked IPFW, Butler, Gardner-Webb and Loyola (Ill.) at last weekend's (March 22-23) Boilermaker Classic at Purdue ... senior Melinda Moulden leads the team with a .358 batting average, while redshirt junior Meghan Doe is hitting .333 ... sophomore Nicole Motycka has a 5-4 record and a team-low 1.17 earned-run average in the circle, while senior Marissa Young is 9-0 with a 1.21 ERA ... last year, the Wolverines went 50-11 overall and 15-3 in the Big Ten ... U-M won the conference regular-season and tournament titles, as well as an NCAA Regional, and advanced to the College World Series ... head coach Carol Hutchins has a record of 769-315-4 in her 19th year in Ann Arbor ... she is 792-326-4 in her 20th season overall ... the school's athletics web site is mgoblue.com.
Detroit enters the week with an overall record of 12-7 ... the Titans will bring a two-game win streak to the BGSU Softball Field ... UDM went 3-1 at the Indiana Classic over the weekend, downing IUPUI and host IU in Sunday (March 23) action ... freshmen Katrina Klemp and Lindsay Roy each are hitting .357 to pace the club, while sophomore Anna Ollgaard is hitting .349 ... a total of seven Titans have seen pitching time this season ... both sophomore Lisa Ferguson and freshman Christin Bienenstein have 2-0 records, while Roy is 5-1 in a team-high 44 1/3 innings pitched ... Ferguson has a team-low 2.30 ERA ... a season ago, Detroit was 21-23 overall and finished third in the Horizon League with a 7-5 mark ... head coach Bob Wilkerson has a record of 97-200 in his seventh season, all at UDM ... the school's athletics web site is www.detroittitans.com.
Central Michigan enters the week with an overall record of 10-8, and the Chippewas are 3-1 in MAC play heading into a Wednesday (March 26) twinbill at Toledo ... last weekend, CMU opened MAC play with a Saturday DH sweep at Ohio, but CMU split a twinbill at Miami the next day ... the BGSU series marks the first home games for the Chippewas this season ... individually, senior Michelle Brander leads the team with a .411 batting average and four homers ... junior Amber Puchalski has a 6-3 record and a 1.46 ERA, while senior Jenni Rasmussen is 3-3 with a 2.26 ERA ... both Puchalski (first team) and Rasmussen (second team) earned All-MAC honors a year ago ... in 2002, CMU went 39-16 overall and 23-1 in MAC play ... the Chippewas won the MAC West Division crown and went on to capture the league tournament and advance to NCAA Regional play ... head coach Margo Jonker has a record of 816-437-5 in her 25th season, all with the Chippewas ... the school's athletics web site is www.cmuchippewas.com.
THE SERIES
The Falcons trail the all-time series with Michigan by a 20-4 margin, and the Wolverines hold a 4-1 lead in games played at the BGSU Softball Field ... U-M has won the last eight overall series meetings, including a 4-1 decision in Ann Arbor last year (April 3, 2002), and the Wolverines have captured the last two games in BG ... U-M won a 5-2 game at the BGSU Softball Field two years ago (April 4, 2001) ... BG's last win in the series came on April 8, 1992.
BGSU holds a 23-5 lead in the series with Detroit, and the Falcons have won the last 11 meetings ... Wednesday marks the ninth-straight season that the Falcons and Titans have met for a doubleheader ... BGSU holds a 10-4 lead in home games vs. UDM, and the Falcons have won the last five games at the BGSU Softball Field ... last season, BG swept a twinbill in the Motor City by scores of 8-3 and 12-5 (May 2, 2002) ... in the most recent meetings in BG, the Brown and Orange won by identical 6-2 scores (April 16, 2001).
Central Michigan holds a commanding 51-11 lead in the series with the Falcons, and the Chippewas are 22-6 in home games vs. BGSU ... last season, CMU won three games in BG, sweeping a doubleheader by scores of 3-1 and 6-1, and winning on getaway day by a 6-5 margin (April 6-7, 2002) ... the Chippewas have won the last 25 overall meetings between the teams, and the last nine games in Mount Pleasant ... BG's last series win came April 8, 1994 at CMU.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
The Falcons enter the week with a record of 8-11-1 ... BGSU is 3-6-1 in road games and 5-5 in neutral-site action ... as a team, the Brown and Orange is hitting .265, while the opponents are batting .248 ... freshman Gina Rango is hitting a team-high .417 on the season, while senior Libby Voshell is batting .383 ... freshman Lindsay Heimrich is hitting .375 this year ... Rango and Voshell have three homers apiece to tie for the club lead ... Rango has scored 15 runs and has 13 RBI, pacing the team in both categories ... junior Jenifer Kernahan has 11 RBI to rank second on that list, and Kernahan has two homers this spring ... Voshell has a team-high six doubles, and is third on the team with 10 RBI ... Voshell and senior Kandice Machain have 11 runs apiece ... those two players and Rango are the only Falcons to have started all 20 games to date ... Falcon pitchers have a combined ERA of 2.97 this season, to the opponents' 2.65 ... freshman Liz Vrabel has a 1.97 ERA, and has a 5-4 record with three complete-game shutouts ... she leads the Falcons with 52 strikeouts ... sophomore Kristen Anderson is 2-0 with a 2.14 ERA, while junior Jody Johnson has a 1-3 record, one save and an ERA of 3.47 ... Vrabel leads the Falcons with five complete games, and has allowed opponents to hit just .185 against her.
HOMER HAPPY
The Falcons now have a team total of nine homeruns on the year, already the fifth-highest seasonal total in school history ... in fact, that total would have set the school record just five years ago ... BGSU never had more than eight homers in a season before hitting 19 as a team in both 1999 and 2000 ... then, the Falcons had a school-record 21 round-trippers in 2001, before hitting 11 last year.
ROAD WARRIORS
The Western Michigan games opened the Mid-American Conference portion of the season for the Falcons ... BGSU is scheduled to play a total off 11 games against the four West Division teams that made the 2002 MAC Tournament -- WMU, Ball State, Central Michigan and Northern Illinois -- with all 11 of those games on the road.
GO WEST
Saturday's doubleheader at Western Michigan marked 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 38 doubles to rank third on that Falcon list ... she needs three more to tie Angie Domschot (1998-2001) for second place, and is nine 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 (.282; 16th).
OTHERS ON CAREER CHARTS
In addition to Voshell, several other Falcons can be found on the school's career charts ... junior Jenifer Kernahan hit her fifth career homerun at WMU Saturday, moving her into a tie for 10th place on that BGSU career list ... senior Kandice Machain slammed her fourth round-tripper at WMU, and now is deadlocked for 13th on that list ... Machain has moved onto the list for career runs scored ... she is 16th with 66 runs scored ... Machain is also on the school lists for doubles (20; T-14th), triples (seven; T-12th) and batting average (.279; 18th) ... freshman Gina Rango is tied for 17th with three homers ... senior McKenna Houle is ranked on every pitching list, including appearances (75; T-seventh), games started (52; T-ninth), innings (363; ninth), wins (29; T-seventh), strikeouts (184; T-fifth), saves (two; T-ninth), shutouts (10; fifth) and ERA (2.10; ninth) ... junior Jody Johnson is on the career lists for strikeouts (93; 12th) and saves (three; T-seventh).
