.png&type=webp)
Bowling Green State University Athletics
BGSU End-Of-Season Release
May 21, 2003 | Softball
May 21, 2003
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
Complete End-of-Season Release (22 pages) in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
The Bowling Green State University softball team, after capturing a fifth Mid-American Conference Tournament berth in six years, has concluded the 2003 season ... the Falcons of fifth-year head coach Leigh Ross-Shaw end the campaign with an overall record of 26-26-1 ... BGSU posted a MAC ledger of 15-9 to finish fourth in the West Division and fifth overall ... in the MAC Tournament, the fifth-seeded Falcons opened with a 7-2 win over #4 Northern Illinois (May 8) ... BGSU then dropped a narrow, 2-1 decision to top-seeded Marshall, and was eliminated by Central Michigan, 3-0.
ROSS-SHAW BECOMES BGSU'S WINNINGEST COACH
BGSU opened the MAC Tournament with a 7-2 victory over Northern Illinois (May 8) ... that win was victory number 137 for Leigh Ross-Shaw as the Falcon head coach, making her the winningest coach in school history ... Ross-Shaw ends the 2003 season with a record of 137-115-2 (.543) in five seasons, having surpassed Jacquie Joseph (136-123 from 1989-93), now the coach at Michigan State ... Ross-Shaw currently ranks second in winning pct., trailing only Sandy Haines (.557; 57-45-3 from 1981-83).
ROSS-SHAW MOVING UP WINS LIST IN MAC GAMES, TOO
Each of the Falcons' two wins over Eastern Michigan on the final day of the regular season (May 3) moved BGSU head coach Leigh Ross-Shaw up the school's all-time wins lists ... the game-one win was Ross-Shaw's 72nd MAC win, moving her past Rachel Miller-Reif (71-84 from 1994-98) ... Ross-Shaw served as a Falcon assistant coach under Miller-Reif for two seasons (1997-98) before assuming the top job ... with a win in the second game that day, Ross-Shaw now stands just five behind Jacquie Joseph, who had 78 MAC wins during her BGSU tenure (78-71) ... of course, that game-two win also moved Ross-Shaw into a first-place tie with Joseph on the overall wins list, and Ross-Shaw took sole possession of first place with the win over NIU in the MAC Tournament ... Ross-Shaw is the school's all-time leader in winning percentage in MAC games (.619).
RANGO NAMED TO GREAT LAKES ALL-REGION FIRST TEAM
Falcon freshman 3B Gina Rango has been named to the 2003 Great Lakes All-Region First Team, it was announced May 14 ... Rango, a native of North Lima, Ohio (Boardman H.S.), becomes just the eighth player in school history to earn all-region honors, and only the third Falcon ever to be named to the all-region first team ... additionally, Rango is the only freshman named to the 2003 first team, and was one of only two MAC players chosen to the first team, joining Ohio outfielder Erin Chapman ... four MAC players were named to the second team ... the Great Lakes All-Region Team is the result of voting by head coaches within the region.
RANGO, VRABEL EARN MVP AWARDS
A pair of Falcon freshmen won the team's Most Valuable Player awards for the 2003 season ... third baseman Gina Rango was named the Falcons' Most Valuable Offensive Player, while pitcher Liz Vrabel earned the Most Valuable Defensive Player award ... sophomore Stephanie Finkel was named the team's Most Improved Player, while true sophomore Sara Edwards and redshirt soph Marla Murphy earned the Coaches Award, which goes to the player or players who embody traits such as spirit and a positive attitude, both on and off the field ... the awards, with the obvious exception of the Coaches Award, are the result of voting by team members.
BGSU IN THE MAC TOURNEY
The Falcons appeared in the MAC Tournament for the fifth time in the last six years, and for the eighth time in school history ... the 2003 season marked the 13th MAC Tournament ... a league tourney was held each year from 1982-86 before a hiatus of nearly a decade (the tournament resumed in 1996, but that year's tourney was suspended in the third game due to inclement weather) ... through the 2003 season, Bowling Green has compiled an all-time MAC tourney mark of 9-16, having gone 1-2 on six of the eight occasions the Falcons have qualified ... BGSU was 1-2 in the first four trips, 0-2 in 1999, and 3-2 in 2000 ... BG posted a 1-2 mark at the 2001 tourney, and again won one of three games this year ... the runner-up finish in 2000 was the Falcons' best placing ever in the MAC Tournament ... the Falcons participated in the league tourney in 1982, 1985 and 1986, prior to the four-year run from 1998-2001 ... in three of the team's first four trips, BG won the first game before losing the next two.
HEAD COACH LEIGH ROSS-SHAW
Leigh Ross-Shaw has concluded her fifth season as a collegiate head coach, all with the Falcons, and has an overall record of 137-115-2 (.543) ... Ross-Shaw, the 2001 MAC Coach of the Year, has a league mark of 73-45 (.619) ... Ross-Shaw has become the winningest coach in school history ... the Falcons' final win of 2003, a 7-2 MAC Tournament victory over Northern Illinois (May 8), moved Ross-Shaw past Jacquie Joseph (136-123 from 1989-93) into sole possession of first place on the BGSU wins list ... Ross-Shaw 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's total of 73 MAC wins places her second behind Joseph (78-71).
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
Steve Babinski has completed 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 ... Tami Summers wraps up 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.
LAST TIME(S) OUT
The Falcons went 1-2 in the MAC Tournament at Firestone Stadium in Akron, Ohio ... the Brown and Orange opened tourney play with a 7-2 win over Northern Illinois (May 8) ... that evening, BGSU dropped a narrow, 2-1 decision to top-seeded Marshall ... the next day, the Falcons lost to Central Michigan by a 3-0 score ... senior Libby Voshell led the Falcons with a .375 batting average in the tourney ... she had an on-base percentage of .500 and a slugging pct. of .875 in the three games ... freshman Liz Vrabel started all three games, and had an earned-run average of just 1.11 ... Vrabel walked only three batters and struck out 18 in 19 innings of action in Akron.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
The Falcons finished the 2003 season with an overall record of 26-26-1, and the Brown and Orange went 15-9 in conference play ... BGSU finished fourth in the MAC's West Division and earned the fifth seed for the league tournament ... Leigh Ross-Shaw's team ended the year with a record of 13-4 in home games, including a 12-1 MAC mark ... the Falcons went 7-15-1 on the road, and 6-7 in neutral-site action ... in MAC play, the Falcons had a record of 3-8 away from home ... BG's 15-9 MAC mark included a 6-1 record against East Division teams and a 9-8 ledger vs. the West Division ... as a team, the Brown and Orange hit .262, while the opponents batted .224 ... freshman Gina Rango hit a team-high .364 on the season, while senior Libby Voshell had a batting average of .351 ... junior Jenifer Kernahan ended the season with an even .300 average, while senior Kandice Machain and freshman Lindsay Heimrich hit .276 and .273, respectively ... Voshell had six homers this season, while Rango hit five, Kernahan four and Machain three ... Rango scored 34 runs and had 13 doubles and 27 RBI ... she led the team in runs and was second in both doubles and RBI ... Kernahan knocked in a team-high 35 runs on the year ... Voshell scored 33 runs and Machain 29 ... those two players and Rango were the only Falcons to start all 53 games this year, while Kernahan made 52 starts and senior Crystal Wilson 51 ...Wilson had 25 RBI, tying her with Voshell for third ... Falcon pitchers had a combined ERA of 2.32 this season, to the opponents' 2.42 ... freshman Liz Vrabel had a 1.12 ERA and a record of 17-11 with six complete-game shutouts ... she led the Falcons with 168 strikeouts ... sophomore Kristen Anderson was 2-2 with a save and an ERA of 2.46, while junior Jody Johnson had a 5-5 record, two saves and an ERA of 2.59 ... Vrabel led the Falcons with 18 complete games, and allowed opponents to hit just .171 against her.
THIS SEEMS FAMILIAR...
The Falcons' MAC Tournament win over Northern Illinois had a familiar ring to it ... the victory marked the first tourney-opening win for BGSU since the 1998 tournament ... that year, the tourney also was held in Akron (hosted by the Univ. of Akron), and the Falcons also downed NIU ... that year, BGSU was the sixth seed, and topped third-seeded Northern, 1-0, on a Garrett Gholston one-hitter ... unfortunately, the trend continued as the Falcons dropped the next two games, just as in 1998.
RARE LOSS TO THE HERD
Marshall's MAC Tournament win over BG marked only the second time the Herd has ever beaten the Falcons ... BGSU now holds a 17-2 lead in the all-time series, and the teams are deadlocked, 1-1, in MAC Tournament meetings ... the MU win broke an overall nine-game series winning streak for the Falcons.
TWO-OUT MAGIC VS. NIU
The Falcons scored six two-out runs en route to a 7-2 win over Northern Illinois in the MAC Tournament opener for both teams ... BG got a single run with two down in the first inning, then scored five two-out runs in the third ... BGSU got a pair of RBI singles, from Kandice Machain and Lindsay Heimrich, and a three-run homer from Libby Voshell in that frame, taking a 6-0 lead.
COMPLETE-GAME SHUTOUT, SORT OF
Freshman Liz Vrabel pitched seven innings, allowing no runs, in the Falcons' seven-inning win over NIU, but was not credited with a complete game or a shutout ... Vrabel allowed no runs and only three hits, walking one and striking out six ... she pitched the first five innings, then came out at the start of the sixth ... when reliever Lindsay Heimrich surrendered back-to-back homers, Vrabel returned to the game and got the final six outs.
BIG INNING VS. THE HUSKIES
The Falcons' five-run fourth inning vs. NIU tied a season-high for runs in an inning ... BGSU also had five-run innings vs. Stony Brook (March 15) and Toledo (April 6).
THE HEIMRICH MANEUVER
Freshman Lindsay Heimrich, after hitting a total of two doubles in her first 39 games, then had a total of three in a three-game span ... she had a pair of two-base hits in a win over Eastern Michigan in the season's final weekend, then doubled and scored the Falcons' first run in the MAC Tournament win over Northern Illinois.
HOMER HAPPY
Senior Libby Voshell and freshman Gina Rango each hit a home run vs. Northern Illinois in the MAC Tournament (May 8) ... that gave the Falcons a team total of 20 homeruns on the year, the second-highest seasonal total in school history and just one shy of the school record ... 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.
VOSHELL TIES SEASON HR RECORD
Senior Libby Voshell clubbed a three-run homer in the Falcons' win over NIU ... the homer was her sixth of the season, tying the school record ... Voshell matched the record set by Jen Domschot in 2000 and equalled by Lynsey Ebel in 2001.
VOSHELL JUST MISSES TWO CAREER RECORDS
Senior Libby Voshell ends her BGSU career with a total of 13 homers, just one shy of the school record ... Voshell finishes her tenure tied with Jen Domschot (13 from 1999-2001) for second place, one back of first-place Lynsey Ebel (14 from 1998-2001) ... Voshell, who homered in the NIU game on May 8, doubled vs. Marshall that evening ... the two-base hit was the 46th of her career, moving her just one away from that BGSU mark ... Dena Romstadt (1990-93) holds the school record with 47 doubles.
VOSHELL ON OTHER CAREER LISTS
Senior Libby Voshell finished her career ranked near the top of a number of BGSU career lists ... as mentioned, she fell just one homer and one double shy of tying the school record in each category ... Voshell ended her career with a total of 86 RBI, ranking her third (just five away from the school record) ... she also ranks among the career leaders in walks (58; fourth - seven shy of school record), hits (163; 10th), batting average (.290; 12th), at-bats (562, 12th) and runs scored (72; 14th) ... Voshell's name can be found on eight of the 10 offensive categories (all but triples and stolen bases).
OTHERS ON CAREER CHARTS
In addition to Voshell, several other Falcons can be found on the school's career charts ... junior Jenifer Kernahan has seven career homers to tie for seventh on that list, while senior Kandice Machain is deadlocked for 10th on that list, with six career round-trippers ... freshman Gina Rango is tied for 12th with five HRs ... senior Crystal Wilson is tied for 18th on that list with three homers ... Machain is also on the school lists for doubles (24; T-10th), triples (seven; T-12th), runs scored (84; seventh), hits (150; 12th) and batting average (.287; 15th) ... Kernahan has upped her career batting average to .278, ranking her 20th on that list ... she is just one double and two RBI away from moving onto those career charts ... senior McKenna Houle is ranked on every pitching list, including appearances (84; sixth), games started (59; seventh), innings (388; ninth), wins (31; sixth), strikeouts (197; fifth), saves (two; T-ninth), shutouts (10; fifth) and ERA (2.36; 10th) ... junior Jody Johnson is on the career lists for strikeouts (129; 11th) and saves (four; T-fifth), and has moved onto the ERA list (2.58; 12th) ... Liz Vrabel has moved onto the career strikeout list ... she has 168 K's, good for eighth place.
FALCONS AMONG THE MAC LEADERS
In the final Mid-American Conference statistics, the Falcons were ranked fifth as a team in batting, with a .262 average ... BGSU was also fifth with an earned-run average of 2.32 ... individually, freshman Gina Rango was ninth in hitting, with a .364 average, while senior Libby Voshell (.351) ranked 12th ... freshman Liz Vrabel led the league in ERA, at 1.12, and junior Jody Johnson was 15th (2.59) ... Rango was tied for third in doubles (13), and was fourth in hits (60), fifth in total bases (88), sixth in runs (34) and tied for eighth in RBI (27) ... Voshell was tied for the league lead in doubles (14), and she finished third in walks (25), tied for sixth in total bases (85), sixth in on-base pct. (.446), seventh in runs (33), ninth in hits (53) and tied for 10th in RBI (25) ... junior Jenifer Kernahan ranked fifth in RBI (35), while senior Kandice Machain finished ninth in runs scored (29) ... in addition to ERA, Vrabel led the league in both opponent batting average (.171) and strikeouts (168) ... she was second in wins (17), tied for third in appearances (32), fourth in innings pitched (174 1/3) and complete-game shutouts (six), tied for sixth in games started (24) and seventh in complete games (18).
In MAC games only, Machain finished 17th in batting (.346), while Vrabel was fourth (1.07) and Johnson eighth (1.34) in ERA ... Machain also finished tied for sixth in runs (16) and deadlocked for ninth in hits (28) ... Voshell was tied for third in walks (12), tied for fourth in doubles (seven) and finished fifth in runs (17) ... Kernahan was tied for sixth with 19 RBI in league play ... Vrabel led the league in opponent batting average (.164), strikeouts (89) and games started (15) ... she tied for first in complete games (12) and was second in innings pitched (98.0), tied for second in appearances (16), deadlocked for third in complete-game shutouts (three) and tied for fourth in wins (nine) ... Johnson was 10th in opponent batting average (.237).
FALCONS VS. NCAA FIELD
The Falcons played a total of seven games against teams that advanced to the NCAA Regionals in 2003 ... BGSU went 1-6 in those games, with the win coming over Michigan, 3-1 (March 25) ... that was part of a doubleheader split at the BGSU Softball Field ... the Falcons also played two games against both Western Michigan and Oakland, and one game vs. Southwest Texas ... additionally, BG was scheduled to face Tennessee Tech in that school's tournament, but the tourney was cancelled due to inclement weather.
HONORS KEPT ROLLING IN
Falcon players earned Mid-American Conference weekly awards six times this season ... Jenifer Kernahan and Liz Vrabel were the latest on a rapidly growing list this spring, garnering Player- and Pitcher-of-the-Week honors, respectively, on April 14 ... junior Jody Johnson was the MAC Pitcher of the Week on Feb. 24, while freshman Lindsay Heimrich earned player-of-the-week honors on March 18 and Vrabel was accorded pitching honors in three consecutive weeks (March 31, April 7 and April 14) ... early records are sketchy, but BG's total of six honors this year is believed to be the most in school history.
WILSON HAS A GRAND WEEK
Senior Crystal Wilson had one career homerun in her first three-and-a-half seasons with the Falcons ... then, however, Wilson hit a grand slam in each of two consecutive home games ... she hit a homer with the bases loaded in the Falcons' 7-3 win over Akron (April 19), then broke open the April 23 Toledo game with another slam ... Wilson is only the second Falcon to hit two career grand slams ... Renee Rosemeier had slams in games vs. Pacific (Feb. 16, 2001) and Marshall (March 30, 2001) two seasons ago.
BGSU'S 10-GAME WINNING STREAK
The Falcons had a 10-game winning streak, all in MAC play, to begin the month of April ... that streak tied the school record ... BGSU teams also won 10 consecutive games from April 10-20, 1993, and from March 4-11, 2000 ... the 2003 streak set a school mark for conference victories in the same season ... BGSU had had three prior streaks of 10 or more games, including a 12-game MAC winning streak, but each of the three streaks came over parts of two seasons ... in that 12-game streak, the Falcons won the final nine games of the 1988 campaign, en route to a MAC championship and an NCAA regional appearance, then won the first three league contests the next spring.
FALCON NOTES AND NUMBERS
Falcon opponents had a success rate of just over 60 percent on stolen-base attempts in 2003, swiping 34 bases in 56 tries ... BG foes had only a .385 percentage when junior Jody Johnson was pitching, stealing 5-of-13 bases ... opponents were 30-of-51 (.588) against junior catcher Jenifer Kernahan on the year ... junior Valerie Tipton hit .182 on the season, but was quite successful when batting with two outs ... in 20 at-bats, Tipton hit .300 in such situations ... freshman Gina Rango and senior Libby Voshell, the team's top-two hitters on the year, were at the top of the team stats when leading off an inning ... Rango, in 36 at-bats to start an inning, had a batting average of .528, while Voshell hit .485 in 33 such at-bats ... redshirt sophomore Marla Murphy hit .478 in 23 at-bats when leading off an inning ... Kernahan hit a team-best .455 when hitting with the bases loaded (11 AB) ... senior Crystal Wilson had the most bases-loaded at-bats, 14, on the Falcons in 2003 ... she hit .357 in such situations, with a pair of grand slams ... interestingly, Voshell, who had a total of 151 at-bats on the year, had zero at-bats with the bases loaded ... Voshell hit a team-high .409 when batting with runners on base (66 AB) ... Rango led the team in two-out runs batted in, as 19 of her 27 RBI on the year came with two down ... Kernahan had 17 of her team-best 35 RBI with two outs ... the Falcons outscored opponents by a combined 59-20 in the fourth and fifth innings on the year (27-10 in the fourth, 32-10 in the fifth) ... but, BGSU was outscored by an aggregate 64-37 in the first two innings of 2003 games (outscored 33-19 in the first inning and 31-18 in the second) ... the Falcons were outscored, 17-9, in the first inning of MAC games, but BGSU outscored the opponents by a 33-12 count from the fifth through the seventh inning ... overall, BG was 4-10 in one-run games ... the Falcons were 11-5 when Murphy started at the designated-player spot ... from March 29 to the end of the season, Johnson had a 4-1 record and an earned-run average of 1.50 ... freshman Liz Vrabel was 11-5 with an ERA of 0.67 in April and May (104 innings pitched) ... senior Kandice Machain hit .353 over the season's final 25 games, going 30-for-85 ... prior to then, she had hit .213 (20-of-94) on the year ... Voshell hit .500 (10-for-20) over the last seven games of the season, and batted .483 (14-of-29) in the final 10 games of her collegiate career ... Vrabel walked 10 batters in her first two collegiate appearances, then issued just 32 free passes in her final 161 2/3 innings of the year, an average of only 1.39 walks per seven innings ... Vrabel walked only five batters, while striking out 53, in her final 54 innings of the year ... Rango batted .382 in 49 games at the cleanup spot of the batting order ... sophomore Kristen Anderson had a 2.46 ERA on the year, but had an ERA of just 1.30 in games she started ... Vrabel had a 4-1 record and a perfect 0.00 ERA in games in which she relieved ... in her eight relief appearances (totalling 22 2/3 innings), Vrabel walked just four batters and struck out 25 ... she surrendered three unearned runs and allowed opponents to hit only .123 against her ... Johnson was 2-0 with a 2.16 ERA in 35 2/3 innings of relief work ... Johnson and senior McKenna Houle combined for a 4-13 record as starting pitchers, with an ERA of 4.30 ... but, the two went a combined 3-0 with a 2.03 ERA as relievers in 2003 ... Kernahan hit .432 (16-of-37) with 15 RBI in 13 home MAC games ... Vrabel was 7-1 with an ERA of only 0.53 in home conference contests, allowing opponents to hit just .110, while Johnson was 3-0 with an ERA of 0.80 and an opponent BG of only .204 ... overall at home, Vrabel went 8-1 with an ERA of 0.45, allowing opponents to hit just .127 ... she had 61 strikeouts in 61 2/3 innings pitched at the BGSU Softball Field ... Rango hit a team-best .389 in MAC road games, and led the Falcons with a batting average of .378 in all road games ... she had a .554 slugging pct. and a total of 14 RBI, leading the team in both categories, in road contests ... Voshell had a .775 slugging pct. in neutral-site games, while Rango had a slugging pct. of .650 ... each player had 40 at-bats in neutral-site games, and Voshell had four homers and nine RBI while Rango homered three times and drove in 10 ... Machain hit just .192 (14-of-73) in the month of March, but then had batting averages of .343 (23-of-67) in April and .364 (8-of-22) in May ... Kernahan had a .246 BA in the month of March, then hit a team-high .364 (20-of-55) with 19 RBI in April ... Voshell ended her career by hitting .500 (9-of-18) in the month of May ... BGSU had a record of 11-2 against teams from the state of Ohio this season ... but, BGSU went just 4-11 vs. teams from the state of Michigan ... BGSU had three wins vs. Eastern Michigan to close the regular season, and also posted a 3-1 victory vs. the nationally-ranked University of Michigan (March 25) ... the Falcons entered the Toledo game of April 23 with a total of seven stolen bases in 275 innings on the year, before swiping two bases in the second inning alone vs. the Rockets ... those two thefts were the only two in 24 MAC games for the Falcons this year ... senior Crystal Wilson had two career stolen bases, before swiping two in as many days, vs. Oakland and UT (April 22-23).
