Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Head To Louisville
March 07, 2003 | Softball
March 7, 2003
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
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The Bowling Green State University softball team heads to the state of Kentucky for this weekend's Red and Black Classic, hosted by the University of Louisville ... the Falcons (2-3) of fifth-year head coach Leigh Ross-Shaw are slated to play three games in the Saturday-Sunday (March 8-9) tourney ... first, however, BGSU and Louisville have added a game to the schedule, and will play a Friday (March 7) contest, beginning at 4:00 p.m. at UL's Ulmer Stadium ... the tournament begins with a Saturday morning game vs. Illinois State University ... the Falcons also will face Mid-American Conference foe Ohio University and host UL, with those two games scheduled for Sunday ... then, the Brown and Orange will remain in Kentucky to play a Tuesday (March 11) doubleheader at Morehead State University ... the following weekend (March 14-16), BG will compete in the Cavalier Classic in Charlottesville, Va. ... in that tourney, the Falcons will play three doubleheaders, against Seton Hall, Stony Brook and host Virginia ... the Falcons' upcoming schedule follows:
All times local to site
Friday, March 7 at Louisville, 4:00 p.m.Red and Black Classic - Louisville, Ky. Sat.-Sun., March 8-9 Saturday - vs. Illinois State, 11:00 a.m. Sunday - vs. Ohio, 11:00 a.m. Sunday - at Louisville, 1:00 p.m.
Tuesday, March 11 at Morehead State (DH), 2:00 p.m.
Cavalier Classic - Charlottesville, Va. Fri.-Sun., March 14-16 Friday - vs. Seton Hall (DH), Noon Saturday - vs. Stony Brook (DH), Noon Sunday - at Virginia (DH), 11:00 a.m.
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 qualifying for the MAC Tournament for the first time since 1997 ... Ross-Shaw returns 10 letterwinners, including five starters, from that squad.
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 113-92-1 (.551) ... 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 23 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 for the first time ever 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 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.
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 the season by going 2-3 at the New Mexico State Tournament (Feb. 14-16) ... BGSU lost the season opener to San Jose State, 6-5, but rallied for 4-0 victories over both Marshall and the host school ... then the Falcons fell to Southwest Texas State and Indiana ... BGSU's scheduled tournament for the next weekend, the Tennessee Tech tourney (Feb. 21-23), was cancelled due to wet grounds and the possibility of additional rain in the Cookeville, Tenn., area.
THE OPPONENTS
Louisville is 3-6 overall, and the Cardinals take a three-game win streak into Friday's game ... UL defeated Indiana State Saturday (March 1), then swept a road twinbill at Morehead State on Wednesday (March 5) ... Keola Calderon is hitting .414 to lead the team, while Sara Bausher has four extra-base hits and 10 runs batted in through nine games ... Jessica Rak is 1-2 with a team-low 3.67 earned-run average ... last year, UL went 27-28 overall and placed fourth in Conference USA with a league mark of 11-10 ... head coach Sandy Pearsall enters the BGSU game with a record of 93-86 in her fourth year in Louisville ... she has an overall mark of 356-422 in her 17th year as a collegiate head coach ... the school's athletics web site is www.uoflsports.com.
Illinois State takes a 6-8 overall record into the Red and Black Classic ... the Redbirds have been idle since playing in the NFCA Leadoff Classic in Columbus, Ga. ... ISU closed that tourney with losses to a pair of nationally-ranked teams, Notre Dame and California ... the team has struggled offensively over the first 14 games, batting .192 ... Emily Krueger leads the squad with a .294 average ... Corey Harris is 3-3 in the circle, with a 1.58 ERA ... a season ago, ISU went 34-17 overall and won the Missouri Valley Conference regular-season title with a 21-4 mark ... head coach Melinda Fischer is 556-394-2 in her 18th season at the school ... she has an overall mark of 588-411-2 in her 20th year ... the school's athletics web site is www.redbirds.org.
Ohio takes a 1-1 record into the weekend ... like the Falcons, the Bobcats have been idle for several weeks ... due to weather and unplayable field conditions, the team played only two games at the Triangle Classic in Raleigh, N.C., on Valentine's Day ... OU defeated Elon, 6-4, before losing a 14-4 decision to Long Island ... Sarah Melvin hit .500 in the two games, while Jenny Tisevich pitched in relief in both contests and picked up the win against Elon ... the Bobcats were picked to win the MAC's East Division in the preseason coaches' poll ... head coach Roanna Brazier is 156-170 in her seventh season as a collegiate head coach, all in Athens ... last season, her team went 29-24 overall and 15-9 in MAC play ... the school's athletics web site is www.ohiobobcats.com.
Morehead State is 0-2 entering the weekend ... the Eagles, who saw three series postponed or cancelled due to weather, finally opened the season with Wednesday's doubleheader vs. Louisville ... MSU lost by scores of 5-1 and 8-0 ... the Eagles are scheduled to play six weekend (March 7-9) games at Marshall's tournament prior to hosting the Falcons ... last season, Morehead went 10-32-1 overall and 6-14-1 in the Ohio Valley Conference ... head coach Jennifer VanSickle has a record of 154-257-2 in her 10th year, all with the Eagles ... the school's athletics web site is www.msueagles.com.
THE SERIES
The Falcons trail the all-time series with Louisville by a 1-0 margin ... in the lone previous meeting, UL captured a 6-5 win in last season's tournament at Tennessee Tech ... BGSU trails Illinois State by a 3-2 margin in that series, and the Redbirds took a 7-1 decision in the last meeting, a 1999 game in Lafayette, La. ... BG holds a 42-31 advantage in the series with Ohio, and the teams split a twinbill on the final day of the regular season last year, with the host Bobcats taking a 6-5 win and the Falcons prevailing, 9-5, in the nightcap ... prior to OU's win last year, the Brown and Orange had won four consecutive games in the series ... BGSU and Morehead State have not previously met in softball.
RANGO, VOSHELL ON ALL-TOURNEY TEAM
Freshman Gina Rango and senior Libby Voshell were named to the all-tournament team at the New Mexico State Tournament (Feb. 14-16) ... Rango, in her first weekend of collegiate play, hit a team-best .400 ... she had a slugging percentage of .867, with a double and two homers ... in addition to round-trippers, Rango led the team in both hits and RBI, with six of each, and tied for the team lead with five runs scored in the five games ... the third baseman had a homer in her collegiate debut, vs. San Jose State (Feb. 14), and also homered vs. Southwest Texas the next day ... Voshell hit .267 on the weekend, and was second on the Falcons in RBI (four) ... like Rango, Voshell homered vs. SJSU, and she had a slugging pct. of .467 at the tournament ... the shortstop scored three runs.
JOHNSON NAMED MAC PITCHER OF WEEK
Junior Jody Johnson was named the MAC's Pitcher of the Week on Feb. 24 ... Johnson earned the honor for the first time in her Falcon career after going 1-0 with a 1.40 ERA at the NMSU Tournament ... her weekend included a two-hit shutout of the host school ... on the weekend, she allowed opponents to bat just .206 against her.
NICE START
A pair of Falcon freshmen had auspicious debuts in the Brown and Orange ... as mentioned above, third baseman Gina Rango homered in her collegiate debut, vs. San Jose State, and hit .400 in her first weekend ... another frosh, Liz Vrabel, threw a three-hit shutout in her first appearance, a 4-0 victory over Marshall ... Vrabel issued six walks, but struck out nine MU batters.
GOOSE EGGS
Falcon pitchers put together a string of 19 consecutive shutout innings at the NMSU Tournament ... after senior McKenna Houle got the final out of the season opener vs. San Jose State, freshman Liz Vrabel fired a complete-game, three-hit shutout against Marshall ... then, junior Jody Johnson spun a two-hit shutout as the Falcons downed host NMSU ... Johnson took a no-hitter into the fifth inning of that game, before giving up a leadoff double ... not to be outdone, Vrabel took a no-hitter into the fifth inning of the Falcons' next game, vs. Southwest Texas ... SWT broke up the no-hit bid, and the shutout, with a one-out RBI single ... the Falcons already have doubled the shutout total for all of last season, as BG pitching had just one shutout in 2002.
GO WEST
The Falcons, who have played in the East Division since the MAC went to a divisional format five years ago, have moved to the West Division 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.
FALCONS PICKED FOURTH
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 pts. 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
