Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
EASTERN MICHIGAN
Falcons Sweep EMU, Qualify For MAC Tournament
May 03, 2003 | Softball
May 3, 2003
Final Stats - Game One
Final Stats - Game Two
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University softball team got solid hitting and effective pitching en route to a doubleheader sweep of Eastern Michigan University Saturday afternoon (May 3). The Falcons posted wins by scores of 5-1 and 4-2 in the Mid-American Conference doubleheader at the BGSU Softball Field.
With the wins, the Falcons move over the .500 mark with an overall record of 25-24-1. More importantly, BGSU finishes the regular season with a MAC mark of 15-9, and the Falcons have clinched a spot in the MAC Tournament. EMU ends the season with records of 6-38 and 4-17, respectively.
The six-team, double-elimination MAC Tournament will run from Thursday through Saturday (May 8-10) at Firestone Stadium in Akron, Ohio. The opponent and start time for the Falcons' first tourney game has not yet been determined, and will not be known until Sunday evening (May 4). The conference schedule ends Sunday with five games around the Midwest.
The Falcons rallied from mid-game deficits in both ends of the doubleheader. In the opening game, the Eagles broke on top with a second-inning run off BG junior Jody Johnson.
In that inning, Katie Grens drew a leadoff walk, took second on a sacrifice bunt by Rebecca Florence and scored on a Genny Hann double down the left-field line.
The score remained the same until the bottom of the fourth, when the Falcons broke through against EMU's Marla Otterbacher. The leadoff hitter, freshman Gina Rango, reached base on an Eagle error, and junior Jenifer Kernahan sacrificed her to second. Then, senior Crystal Wilson singled to right-center to score Rango with the tying run.
Wilson took second on a wild pitch, then moved to third on a right-side grounder by sophomore Stephanie Finkel. Freshman Abby Habicht came through with a two-out single, scoring Wilson with what would prove to be the game-winning run.
The Falcons scored three more runs in the fifth inning to break the game open. Freshman Lindsay Heimrich doubled with one out, then took third on a wild pitch. Senior Libby Voshell then came through with the first of her five hits in the doubleheader, lacing a single to score Heimrich. Otterbacher got a popup for the second out of the inning, but Kernahan then crushed a two-run homerun to leftfield to give BG a four-run lead.
For Kernahan, the homer was her fourth of the year and the seventh of her career, and increased her team-leading RBI total to 34.
Johnson shut down the Eagles the rest of the way to earn the complete-game win. The Falcon junior, now 5-5 on the year, allowed one run and five hits in her seven innings. She walked four batters and struck out five. Johnson finished with a 4-1 record in MAC games, and a 1.34 ERA against conference foes.
Otterbacher, who spent a semester as a Falcon walk-on before transferring to EMU, took the loss. She allowed five runs (three earned) and eight hits in her six innings, and did not record a walk or a strikeout. Otterbacher saw her record fall to 2-20.
Both Kernahan and Heimrich had two extra-base hits as part of the Falcons' nine-hit attack. Kernahan was 2-for-2 with a double, a homer and two RBI, while Heimrich went 2-for-3 with a pair of doubles and a run scored.
Five different Eagles had a hit apiece in the opener. Four of EMU's five hits in the game were doubles, as each team had four extra-base hits in the contest. The Eagles left seven runners on base to the Falcons' four.
In the second game, the visitors threatened to score right away against McKenna Houle, but the Falcon senior worked out of a first-inning jam. Leadoff hitter Deanna Wisnieski started the game with a single up the middle, and Liz Flack was hit by a Houle pitch. Houle got Nikki Denman to hit a grounder to second, and BG second baseman Abby Habicht threw to third to force Wisnieski for the first out.
Houle then whiffed cleanup hitter Christie Koester for the second out, and catcher Kernahan then caught Flack attempting to steal third to end the inning. On the weekend, EMU was safe on just one of four stolen-base attempts.
The Eagles did break through, however, for a pair of runs in the third inning. Wisnieski drilled a ball to centerfield for a one-out triple. Then, Flack struck out, but reached first as the ball got away for a wild pitch, with Wisnieski scoring on the play.
Houle retired Denman on a fly ball for the second out, but Koester drew a walk to put runners on first and second with two outs. The next hitter, Carolyn Grutza, reached on an error as her grounder made it to leftfield. Flack, running all the way, scored after briefly being held up on a home-plate collision with Kernahan. With Kernahan tied up, the throw from left sailed past home plate and hit the backstop. Houle picked up the ball and flipped it to Kernahan, who put the tag on Koester, trying to score all the way from first on the play. The Falcons were out of the inning, but the Eagles had a two-run lead.
BG got four hits in the bottom of the third, but could score only once. Senior Kandice Machain led off the inning with a single, and Heimrich beat out a bunt for a single. Then, Voshell singled to left-center to score Machain. After a line-drive by Rango produced the first out, Kernahan's sharp single to left loaded the bases. But, starting pitcher Denman got a popup and a grounder to end the threat and leave the bases loaded.
The Brown and Orange took the lead for good, however, in the fifth. Voshell and Rango had back-to-back singles with one out, and Kernahan hit into a fielder's choice for the second out. On the play, Kernahan's grounder was fielded by third baseman Flack, to tagged the bag to retire Voshell. Then, however, her throw to first sailed down the left-field line. Rango scored all the way from first on the error, while Kernahan advanced to third. Then, Wilson singled down the right-field line to score Kernahan and give the Falcons a 3-2 lead. Finkel and Habicht had back-to-back singles to load the bases, but reliever Otterbacher got an inning-ending strikeout.
BG tacked on an insurance run in the sixth inning, when Rango's sacrifice fly scored Machain, who had doubled and taken third on a Voshell single.
That two-run cushion was more than enough for freshman hurler Liz Vrabel, who had entered the game to start the fifth inning. Vrabel pitched a perfect three innings to pick up her second win of the weekend and her 16th of the year.
Vrabel retired all nine batters she faced, and did not allow a ball out of the infield. She struck out two hitters in each of the last two innings, and retired the other batters on four grounders and an infield popup. Vrabel is now 16-9 on the season.
Houle, who had a no-decision to show for her efforts, pitched well, allowing only two hits in her four innings. Houle gave up just one earned run, walking two and striking out three.
Denman took the loss for EMU, dropping to 4-15. She allowed three runs (one earned) and 11 hits in her four-and-two-thirds innings, walking one and fanning one. Otterbacher got the final five outs of the game, giving up one run and two hits. She had one strikeout and did not walk a batter.
The Falcons held a whopping 13-2 advantage in the hits department. Voshell had the first four-hit game of the season for the Brown and Orange, with four singles in as many at-bats.
Machain was 3-for-4 with two runs scored in the second game, while six Falcons had one hit apiece in the contest.
Wisnieski had the Eagles' only two hits of the game.
The Falcons now head to the MAC Tournament, which begins Thursday. BGSU still could be seeded anywhere from fourth through sixth for the tourney, depending upon the outcomes of Sunday's five games around the conference.
The Falcons' first game will begin at either 11:00 a.m. (if BG is seeded sixth) or 1:30 p.m. (if BG is the #4 or #5 seed).
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