Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
BALL STATE
Late Game-One Rally Triggers BGSU Sweep
April 17, 2004 | Softball
April 17, 2004
Final Stats -- Game One
Final Stats -- Game Two
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - Junior Kristen Anderson's two-out, two-run single in the bottom of the seventh inning gave the Bowling Green State University softball team a 3-2 win over Ball State University Saturday afternoon (April 17). Then, a six-run fourth inning propelled the Falcons to a 6-2 victory in the nightcap and a sweep of the teams' Mid-American Conference doubleheader at the BGSU Softball Field.
With the wins, the Falcons improve to 20-21 overall and 7-5 in MAC play, while dropping the Cardinals to 12-26 and 5-5, respectively.
Sophomore Lindsay Heimrich's three-run, inside-the-park homerun capped the Falcons' six-run inning in the second game, giving classmate Liz Vrabel her second win of the day. Vrabel, who picked up a relief win in the opener, spun a complete-game three-hitter in the second game.
The day did not start well for the Falcons, as BSU's first four batters reached base in game one. Kris Burdine began the game with a sharp single through the left side of the infield. Then, Mandy Snyder laid down a bunt, and Burdine beat Falcon starting pitcher Jody Johnson's throw to second. Kelli Jeziorski drew a walk to load the bases, bringing cleanup hitter Britni Clark to the plate. Clark blooped a single into left field, with Burdine scoring ahead of leftfielder Stephanie Finkel's throw home.
But, Johnson got the next hitter, Jodi Willis, to ground into a double play. Willis hit a hard grounder back to the circle, with Johnson fielding, throwing home to force Snyder, and catcher Abby Habicht's relay to first in time. Then, Falcon shortstop Jenifer Kernahan made a nice leaping grab of Taylor Yancey's soft liner to end the inning.
Ball State doubled the lead by scoring an unearned run in the third. With two outs and a runner on second, Yancey's grounder to first handcuffed Heimrich, and Yancey was able to reach first safely. On the play, the Falcons got Clark caught between third and home, but she eluded third baseman Gina Rango's tag attempt to score.
Meanwhile, BSU starter Quincy Duran was cruising. The Falcons got a pair of runners aboard in the third, on two-out singles by Heimrich and Rango, but Duran got a grounder to second for the final out of the inning.
In the Cardinal fifth, Clark scorched a ball down the right-field line for a leadoff triple, prompting the Falcons to relieve Johnson with Vrabel. Willis hit Vrabel's first offering hard, but first baseman Heimrich made a nice stab, then ran toward the batter and tagged Willis while Clark was forced to hold at third.
Vrabel then got Yancey to pop up to Rango for the second out, but Kerrie Campbell drew a walk. Vrabel, however, got pinch-hitter Cortney Patteson to fly out to Finkel in left to end the threat.
In the Falcon sixth, BG got a run back without benefit of a hit. Anderson drew a leadoff walk after an 11-pitch at-bat. Kernahan hit a slow chopper toward first base, and Willis' throw to first was off-line, allowing Kernahan to reach and Anderson to advance to third. But, Kernahan was caught attempting to steal second, for the first out. Habicht, however, hit a grounder deep into the hole at short. She was nipped at first, but Anderson was able to score the Falcons' first run on the play.
Vrabel gave up a leadoff single to Clark in the top of the seventh, but retired the next three batters, setting the stage for the Falcons' rally.
With one out in the bottom of the seventh, freshman Megan McPherson hit a bouncer just in front of the plate. Classmate Jeanine Baca -- who had three hits in each game Saturday -- followed with a sharp single to send McPherson to second.
Heimrich then hit a popup that Willis caught right at first base. Willis tripped over the bag after making the catch, however, allowing McPherson to take third. Then, the Cardinals intentionally walked Rango to load the bases for Anderson. The move backfired, however, as Anderson hit Duran's first pitch up the middle. Both McPherson and Baca came around to score and give the Falcons the win.
The Cardinals outhit the Falcons by an 8-7 count in the opener, with Clark going 3-for-4 with a triple. For the Brown and Orange, Baca also went 3-for-4.
Vrabel picked up the win with three innings of two-hit shutout relief. She walked one batter and whiffed one. Johnson allowed six hits and two runs (one earned) in her four-plus innings of work, walking two and striking out two.
Duran took the loss to drop to 4-4. She allowed two earned runs and seven hits, walking five and fanning three.
The teams combined to leave a whopping 19 runners on base, with the Cardinals stranding 11.
In the second game, it looked as if the Falcons' late-game momentum from the first contest would carry over. Vrabel retired the Cardinals one-two-three in the top of the first, and Baca greeted BSU starter Randi Freese with a double to the gap in left-center. Heimrich bunted her to third, but Freese got the next two hitters to ground out to third.
The game was scoreless for three-plus innings, but the Falcons changed that in a hurry, stringing together seven hits en route to a six-run fourth.
In that BG fourth, Anderson led off with a hard-hit ball that glanced off of shortstop Yancey. Kernahan's sac bunt moved pinch-runner Marla Murphy to second, and Habicht followed with a line single to left to plate the game's first run. On the play, the ball got past Snyder in leftfield, enabling Habicht to take an extra base.
The next batter, freshman Emmy Ramsey, beat out a bunt for an infield single that sent pinch-runner Lauren Hoffman to third, and head coach Leigh Ross-Shaw called upon Natalie Armintrout to pinch-hit. Armintrout, in only her fifth at-bat of the year, brought Hoffman home with a line single to center that gave the Brown and Orange a two-run lead.
Baca followed by hitting a scorcher that caromed off the glove of third baseman Jeziorski and into foul territory down the left-field line for a double. The next hitter, Heimrich, hit a liner to centerfield that got under the glove of a lunging Burdine and rolled all the way to the wall. When the smoke had cleared, all three runners had scored and Heimrich had an inside-the-park homerun, doubling the Falcons' lead to 6-0.
The Cardinals got a pair of runs back in the sixth, as Jeziorski doubled to score Snyder, and scored herself on a BG error two batters later. But, BSU could draw no closer, as Vrabel got the final out of the sixth, then worked a one-two-three seventh.
Vrabel picked up her second win of the day with her complete-game three-hitter. The sophomore, now 10-11 on the season, allowed one earned run, walking two and striking out four.
Freese took the loss, allowing all six runs and eight hits in three-and-two-thirds innings. She had one walk and one strikeout. Nicki Hellem worked two-plus innings of scoreless, two-hit relief.
Baca's second consecutive 3-for-4 game paced a BGSU 10-hit attack, with seven of her teammates getting one hit apiece. Heimrich had three RBI on the inside-the-park homer.
The Falcons successfuly executed six sacrifice bunts in the twinbill, with Habicht laying down three and Heimrich two. Kernahan drew two walks in the opener and three on the day.
BGSU and Ball State will return to the diamond Sunday (April 18) to close the three-game weekend series. Sunday's game begins at 1:00 p.m. at the BGSU Softball Field.
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