.png&type=webp)
Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Host the Herd Wednesday
March 30, 2004 | Softball
March 30, 2004
Complete Release (7 pages) in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University softball team, after winning two of three games to open the Mid-American Conference schedule, now faces the team picked to win the league in 2004 ... the Falcons of sixth-year head coach Leigh Ross-Shaw will open the home portion of the schedule with a Wednesday (March 31) doubleheader vs. Marshall University ... the first pitch of the first game is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. at the BGSU Softball Field.
Following the MU doubleheader, the Falcons will step out of MAC play for a pair of road doubleheaders this weekend ... BGSU will head to Fort Wayne, Ind., for a Saturday (April 3) twinbill vs. IPFW, beginning at 10:00 a.m. at the IPFW Softball Complex ... then, the Falcons will continue on to Bloomington for a Sunday (April 4) double-dip vs. Indiana University ... that DH is slated to begin at noon at the IU Softball Complex.
BGSU is 12-14 on the season, and the Falcons are 2-1 in MAC play after opening the conference portion of the season at arch-rival Toledo over the weekend ... the Falcons are coming off a 2003 season that saw the team go 26-26-1 overall and 15-9 in MAC play ... BG finished fourth in the West Division and fifth overall, advancing to the MAC Tournament for the fifth time in six seasons ... head coach Leigh Ross-Shaw returns nine letterwinners, including seven starters, from that squad.
HEAD COACH Leigh Ross-Shaw
Leigh Ross-Shaw is in her sixth season as a collegiate head coach, all with the Falcons, and has an overall record of 149-129-2 (.536) ... BGSU's final win in 2003, vs. Northern Illinois in the MAC Tournament, made Ross-Shaw the winningest coach in school history ... Ross-Shaw, the 2001 MAC Coach of the Year, has a league mark of 75-46 (.620), ranking her second in league victories ... she is just three MAC wins shy of the school record, and is the school leader in MAC winning percentage ... in all games, Ross-Shaw currently ranks second in winning pct., trailing only Sandy Haines (.557; 57-45-3 from 1981-83).
Ross-Shaw, the 2001 MAC Coach of the Year, guided the Brown and Orange to a MAC East Division title that spring after a co-championship in 2000 ... she was the fastest coach in BG annals to get to 100 overall wins as well as 50 MAC victories ... Ross-Shaw's total of 75 MAC wins places her second behind Jacquie Joseph (78-71 from 1989-93).
ASSISTANT COACHES
Kyle Jamieson is in his first season as a member of Ross-Shaw's staff, serving as an instructor/softball assistant ... a native of Stittsville, Ontario, Jamieson has an extensive playing and coaching background, including a coaching stint with the Danish Men's National Team ... he also has MAC ties, having spent the 2000 season on the staff at Toledo ... Steve Babinski is in his second campaign on Ross-Shaw's staff ... Babinski, a graduate of Grace (Ind.) College, was a standout baseball player there ... he spent several years coaching at the Bowling Green Christian Academy ... Crystal Wilson is in her first season on the coaching staff, after completing a stellar four-year playing career in the Brown and Orange last spring ... originally a walk-on, the Toledo Whitmer product wound up as the Falcons' starting leftfielder as a junior and senior ... she hit grand slams in back-to-back home games last April.
THE OPPONENTS
Marshall will bring a 20-14 record into Wednesday's twinbill, and the Thundering Herd has a 2-0 MAC record after sweeping defending league tournament champion Western Michigan Saturday (March 27) ... MU has won four consecutive games and six of the last seven contests ... the Herd has a MAC-best .288 team batting average, with each member of the starting outfield batting .368 or better ... senior OF Sierra Davenport is hitting .392, while senior OF Sarah Wilson is batting .380 with four homers ... sophomore OF Amanda Williams is hitting .368 with 28 runs batted in on the season ... sophomore 3B Leigh Wintter, batting .294, leads the league with nine homers and 34 RBI ... in the circle, reigning MAC Pitcher of the Year Randi Nielson is 9-7 with a 1.80 ERA ... Nielson, a junior, leads the league in wins ... last season, Marshall went 41-16 overall and won the MAC's East Division with a 21-6 league mark ... head coach Shonda Stanton has a record of 139-108 in her fifth year with the Herd ... she has an overall head-coaching mark of 166-133 in her sixth season ... the school's athletics web site is www.herdzone.com.
IPFW is 3-21 on the season after a pair of losses to Purdue Saturday ... the Mastodons, who compete as a Division I independent, are scheduled to play a Tuesday (March 30) doubleheader at Toledo and a Thursday (April 1) single game at Wright State prior to hosting the Falcons ... IPFW's wins to date have come over Albany, Niagara and Detroit ... the Detroit twinbill, which the teams split (March 25), has been the lone home action for the Mastodons to date ... individually, senior IF Maggie Bruening is hitting .367, while sophomore C/OF Jenna Beachy is batting .356 ... three different pitchers have a win apiece, as senior Mindy Pomeroy is 1-5 with a 3.69 ERA, while sophomore Beth Harmon is 1-9 with a 5.02 ERA ... junior Mindy Mason has a 1-7 record ... head coach Keith Fisher's team went 18-25 overall a year ago ... Fisher has an overall record of 51-142 in his fifth season, all with the 'Dons ... the school's athletics web site is www.ipfw.edu/athletics.
Indiana has an overall mark of 19-16 entering the week ... the Hoosiers are scheduled to play a Wednesday DH at Illinois at Chicago before opening Big Ten Conference play with Friday and Saturday (April 2-3) home games vs. Michigan ... last weekend, IU went 2-2 at the team's own Hoosier Invitational, sweeping Saint Louis on the final day ... the Hoosiers will take a 9-3 home record into Friday's U-M game ... senior IF Karly McCormack, a transfer from Central Michigan, leads the team with a .356 batting average and 18 RBI ... redshirt freshman C Tory Yamaguchi has a .337 batting average and an IU-best six homers to date ... in the circle, sophomore Mariangee Bogado leads the team in wins and ERA, with an 11-7 record and a 1.19 ERA ... classmate Megan Roark is 5-6 with a 1.60 ERA ... IU has matched the team's win total for all of last season ... head coach Sara Hayes Nottger's team went 19-31 overall and 2-16 in the Big Ten a year ago ... Nottger, in her second year with the Hoosiers, has a mark of 38-47 in Bloomington ... she coached for several seasons at Northern Iowa prior to coming to IU ... the school's athletics web site is www.iuhoosiers.com.
THE SERIES
The Falcons lead the all-time series with Marshall by a 17-2 margin, but the Thundering Herd captured the most recent meeting, a 2-1 decision in the 2003 MAC Tournament (May 8, 2003) ... that game snapped a nine-game series winning streak for the Falcons ... BGSU holds a 6-0 lead in home games, including a three-game sweep in the teams' last meetings at the BGSU Softball Field (March 23-24, 2002) ... last year, the Falcons won a 4-0 game at the New Mexico State Tournament (Feb. 14, 2003), before the Herd took the tourney win.
BGSU trails Indiana, 4-0, in that series ... the Hoosiers won an 8-3 decision last season at the NMSU Tournament (Feb. 16, 2003), the teams' first meeting since 1994 ... that meeting also came at a neutral site, at the Southern Classic in Corbondale, Ill. ... IU picked up a 2-1 win in that meeting (March 6, 1994) ... in the only two series games played in Bloomington, the Hoosiers swept a doubleheader by scores of 1-0 and 5-0 on April 30, 1985.
The Falcons and IPFW have never met on the softball diamond.
LAST WEEK
The Falcons went 2-3 last week, opening with a pair of losses at nationally-ranked Michigan Thursday (March 25) ... the Wolverines picked up an 8-0, five-inning win in the opener, and a 9-5 decision in the second game ... two days later, BGSU opened MAC play with a 3-0 win at Toledo, on a Liz Vrabel one-hitter, but the Rockets rallied for a 2-1 win in the second game ... the next day, BGSU came back with a 6-0 win at UT.
HOME IS (FINALLY) WHERE THE GAMES ARE
After playing 26 games away from home to open the 2004 season, the Falcons finally are scheduled to play a pair of games at the BGSU Softball Field ... Marshall has been the opponent for the home opener on two other occasions ... in 1998, the first-ever meetings between the schools resulted in a BGSU doubleheader sweep, 4-0 and 8-4 (March 27, 1998) ... two years ago, the Falcons won a twinbill over the Thundering Herd, 6-3 and 2-1 (March 23, 2002), as part of a home-opening three-game series sweep.
A RARE LOSS TO THE ROCKETS
Toledo's second-game win on Saturday (March 27) snapped a 14-game BGSU win streak in the series ... Falcon coach Leigh Ross-Shaw, a 1992 graduate of Toledo, had never lost to her alma mater in her head-coaching career ... after Sunday's BG win, Ross-Shaw is now 15-1 vs. UT.
VRABEL AT HER BEST VS. TOLEDO
In her Falcon career, sophomore Liz Vrabel is now 4-0 with an earned-run average of 0.00 against Toledo ... she has allowed only one run, which was unearned, in 28 innings vs. the Rockets ... Vrabel has four complete games in as many appearances against UT, throwing a two-hitter and a one-hitter in 2003, then another one-hitter Saturday before Sunday's six-hit shutout.
BACA GETS ON BASE
Freshman Jeanine Baca, the Falcons' leadoff hitter, has done a nice job of getting on base ... Baca's three-hit game at UT Sunday was her fourth this season, with all four coming in the last seven games ... after getting 15 hits over the first 18 games of the year, Baca is 15-for-29 (.517) over the last eight contests, with five multiple-hit games during that time.
I'M WALKIN'
BGSU batters drew a season-high five walks in Saturday's first game at Toledo, and matched that total in the Sunday contest ... after walking 44 times over the first 23 games (1.91 per game), BG drew a total of 11 walks (3.67 per game) in the UT series.
IT TAKES A THIEF
The Falcons now have a team total of 15 stolen bases in 2004, after swiping a total of nine bases during all of last season ... no player had more than three stolen bases last year ... freshman Jeanine Baca's steal in Sunday's game was her sixth in as many tries in '04.
NOTING THE FALCONS
The Falcons have a 12-14 record, and BGSU is 2-1 in MAC play ... BG has gone 3-6 in road games and 9-8 in neutral-site contests ... BGSU is batting .242 to the opponents' .221 ... sophomore 3B Gina Rango leads the team with a .345 batting average, and also paces the Brown and Orange in at-bats (84), runs (14), hits (29), doubles (seven), runs batted in (18), slugging pct. (.560), on-base pct. (.368) and total bases (47) ... Rango is tied for the team lead in homers (three) and triples (one) ... Rango, junior RF Kristen Anderson and freshman CF Jeanine Baca are the lone players to have started all 26 games to date ... senior Jenifer Kernahan and sophomore Lindsay Heimrich each have made 25 starts, while freshman 2B Megan McPherson has started 24 games ... Baca is second on the team with a .289 batting average, while Heimrich is hitting .267 ... Baca is also second on the Falcons with 13 runs scored and 24 hits, while Heimrich and McPherson each have scored 10 runs on the season ... Anderson has matched Rango's total of three homers, and is second on the team with 16 RBI ... in the circle, Falcon pitchers have a combined ERA of 1.66 this season, to the opponents' 2.26 ... sophomore Liz Vrabel has a 6-8 record and a 1.31 ERA, while Heimrich has a 1-2 record and a 2.20 ERA ... Vrabel, who has 12 complete gaZ%s in 13 starts, has struck out 80 batters and allowed opponents to hit just .218 against her ... Heimrich has an opponent batting average of just .200 ... senior Jody Johnson is 5-4 with a 2.09 ERA.
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES
A few more Falcon facts ... prior to Saturday, Toledo's last victory over BGSU had come on April 28, 1998, when the host Rockets swept a non-conference doubleheader from the Falcons ... UT's last win over BGSU in a MAC game came on April 25, 1997, in the first game of a four-game series ... the Brown and Orange had won 15 consecutive MAC games vs. Toledo before losing the second game on Saturday ... sophomore Liz Vrabel's one-hitter vs. the Rockets was her first of the season, but the fourth of her career, all in MAC play ... she has now thrown a pair of one-hit shutouts vs. Toledo, as she took a no-hitter into the seventh inning before giving up a two-out single last April 23 ... sophomore Abby Habicht made 41 starts last season, with only one of those starts - the first Michigan game - coming at catcher ... but, Habicht has started 17 games behind the plate this spring, including each of the last 13 contests ... senior Jenifer Kernahan has shown similar versatility during her career ... Kernahan entered the 2004 season having made starts at five different positions, and also made several starts as a goalkeeper on the BGSU women's soccer team last fall ... but, Kernahan had never started a game at shortstop in her collegiate career ... now, however, she has made 14 starts at that spot, including each of the last 13 games ... Kernahan has also started nine games at catcher this year ... she enters the Marshall DH with 143 career starts, spread among the catcher (69), leftfield (34), shortstop (14), designated player (11), third base (9) and centerfield (2) spots.
