Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Head To MAC Tournament
May 11, 2004 | Softball
May 11, 2004
Complete Release, Stats, etc. (17 pages) in PDF Format
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BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University softball team, after earning a Mid-American Conference Tournament berth for the sixth time in the last seven years, heads to Akron, Ohio, to open league tourney play ... the Falcons of sixth-year head coach Leigh Ross-Shaw will begin play in the six-team, double-elimination tournament Thursday morning (May 13) ... BGSU, seeded sixth, will take on third-seeded Western Michigan University in the first game of the day, with the first pitch set for 11:00 a.m. ... all tourney games will be played at Firestone Stadium.
The winner of the BGSU-WMU game will return to the diamond Thursday evening, taking on second-seeded Kent State University in the day's third game, scheduled to begin at 5:00 p.m. ... the BGSU-WMU loser will play in an elimination game Friday (May 14) at 1:30 p.m. ... the complete MAC Tournament bracket follows ...
2004 MAC TOURNAMENT
Firestone Stadium; Akron, Ohio
Thursday, May 13 Game 1 - #3 Western Michigan vs. #6 Bowling Green, 11:00 a.m. Game 2 - #4 Miami vs. #5 Ohio, 1:30 p.m. Game 3 - BGSU/WMU winner vs. #2 Kent State, 5:00 p.m. Game 4 - Miami/Ohio winner vs. #1 Central Mich., 7:30 p.m.BGSU ended the regular season with a record of 29-27 on the season, and the Falcons went 13-11 in MAC play to place third in the West Division and tie for fifth overall ... last season, the Brown and Orange went 26-26-1 overall and 15-9 in the conference ... BG finished fourth in the West Division and fifth overall last spring.Friday, May 14 Game 5 - Game 2 loser vs. Game 3 loser, 11:00 a.m. Game 6 - Game 1 loser vs. Game 4 loser, 1:30 p.m. Game 7 - Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 winner, 5:00 p.m. Game 8 - Game 5 winner vs. Game 6 winner, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, May 15 Game 9 - Game 8 winner vs. Game 7 loser, 11:00 a.m. Game 10 - Game 7 winner vs. Game 9 winner, 1:30 Game 11 - Game 10 participants (if necessary) *
* approx. 20-30 minutes after the completion of game 10
BGSU IN THE MAC TOURNEY
The Falcons are appearing in the MAC Tournament for the second consecutive season, the sixth time in the last seven years, and for the ninth time in school history ... this year marks the 14th 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) ... 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 last 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 ... a complete game-by-game listing, with opponent, result and score, can be found in the pdf version of this release.
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 166-142-2 (.539) ... BGSU's final win in 2003, vs. Northern Illinois in last season's MAC Tournament, made Ross-Shaw the winningest coach in school history ... Ross-Shaw, the 2001 MAC Coach of the Year, is also the school's leader in MAC victories and league winning percentage ... she has a league mark of 86-56 (.606) ... 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 ... and, of course, she continues to set new school marks in both categories with each victory.
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
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.
FALCONS VS. THE FIELD IN 2004
This season, the Falcons have posted an aggregate record of 3-5 vs. the other teams in the MAC Tournament field ... BGSU went 3-3 against West Division teams and 0-2 vs. the East Division squads ... the Falcons picked up two wins in a three-game series with Western Michigan, including a pair of 12-inning contests at the BGSU Softball Field on April 9 ... BG then downed the Broncos, 7-1, in the rubber match the next day ... the Brown and Orange dropped both games of a doubleheader at Kent State on April 21 ... last weekend (May 8-9), the Falcons won one of three games vs. visiting Central Michigan to close the regular season ... the Falcons have not faced Miami or Ohio to date in 2004.
FALCONS VS. THE FIELD IN MAC TOURNAMENT PLAY
BGSU's Thursday meeting with Western Michigan will mark only the second meeting between the Falcons and Broncos in the league tournament ... WMU won the only previous meeting, which came in the first-ever MAC Tournament, in 1982 ... the Falcons are 1-1 vs. Ohio, 0-2 against Kent State and 0-7 vs. Central Michigan in the MAC Tournament ... BGSU has never faced Miami in MAC Tourney play.
NOTING THE FALCONS
The Falcons head to Akron with an overall record of 29-27, and the Brown and Orange went 13-11 in league play to earn the sixth seed for the league tourney ... BGSU finished the regular season with records of 12-5 in home games and 8-14 on the road ... the Falcons currently have a record of 9-8 in neutral-site contests ... in MAC play, BG went 9-5 in home games and 4-6 on the road ... the Falcons were just 1-5 against the East Division and 12-6 vs. West Division foes ... as a team, the Falcons are batting .252 to the opponents' .204 ... sophomore 3B Gina Rango leads the team with a .365 batting average ... Rango also paces the Brown and Orange in hits (65), doubles (15), homers (nine), runs batted in (39), slugging pct. (.612), on-base pct. (.411) and total bases (109) ... Rango is the lone Falcon to have started all 56 games to date, while junior RF Kristen Anderson, freshman CF Jeanine Baca and sophomore 1B/P Lindsay Heimrich each have made 55 starts and sophomore C Abby Habicht 54 ... Baca is second on the team with a .317 batting average, while Heimrich is hitting .309 ... Baca leads the team with 34 runs scored, four ahead of Rango's total ... Baca also paces the Falcons in at-bats (180) and is second with 57 hits ... Baca and Anderson have four homers apiece, and Anderson has 26 RBI, ranking second on the team ... Heimrich has 28 runs, 54 hits (including 12 doubles) and 24 RBI on the year ... in the circle, Falcon pitchers have a combined ERA of 1.57, lowest in the MAC ... sophomore Liz Vrabel has a 14-15 record and a 1.46 ERA, while Heimrich has a 4-4 record and a 1.49 ERA ... Vrabel, who has 21 complete games in 27 starts, has struck out 161 batters and allowed opponents to hit just .209 against her ... Heimrich has an opponent batting average of just .196 ... senior Jody Johnson is 11-8 with a 1.79 ERA and an opponent BA of only .200.
THE REST OF THE FIELD
Western Michigan, BGSU's first MAC Tournament opponent, enters the league tourney with an overall record of 30-24 ... the Broncos finished MAC play with a 17-7 record, good for a second-place showing in the West Division and the third seed overall ... Western went 4-0 at home in the final weekend of the season, sweeping doubleheaders from Ball State and Akron ... individually, senior OF Jaymie Voss is hitting a team-high .342 ... she has a WMU-best 20 runs batted in, and is tied with junior 1B Amy Fleming for the team's homerun lead, with four ... in the circle, senior Laura Stewart is 21-12 on the year, with an earned-run average of 1.78 and a total of 225 strikeouts ... Kathy Leitke has a record of 95-106-1 in her fourth season at the WMU helm ... she is 407-273-1 in her 13th season as a collegiate head coach ... the school's athletic web site is www.wmubroncos.com.
Central Michigan brings a 32-15 record into the MAC Tournament ... the Chippewas went 21-3 in MAC games to win the West Division and earn the number-one seed for the tourney ... CMU, of course, closed the regular season at the BGSU Softball Field, taking two of three games last weekend ... junior CF Christin Sobeck is hitting .333 with seven homers and 23 RBI, leading the Chippewas in each category ... senior 1B Aimee Smith is hitting .296, while freshman C/3B Lindsay Calme is batting .281 ... senior Amber Puchalski, the winningest pitcher in MAC history, is 21-7 with a 1.66 ERA, while sophomore Jessica Garvin is 9-6 with a 2.14 ERA ... in MAC games, Puchalski went 15-1 with an ERA of 0.96, while Garvin was 6-2 with a 1.80 ERA ... Margo Jonker has a record of 864-462-5 in her 25th season as a collegiate head coach, all in Mount Pleasant ... the school's athletics web site is www.cmuchippewas.com.
Kent State is 26-18 this season, and the Golden Flashes concluded conference play with a 15-6 record to win the East Division and garner the second seed ... KSU dropped the opening two games of last weekend's series at Marshall, but bounced back to beat the Herd (and help the Falcons qualify for the tournament) on Sunday ... senior SS Marci Ridenbaugh is hitting .315 this season, with senior C Carrie Eneix hitting .303 with a team-high six homers ... freshman Brittany Robinson leads a balanced pitching corps with a 9-6 record and a 1.46 ERA ... senior Tracie Logar is 7-4 with a 1.54 ERA, while classmate Kate Leary has a 9-8 record and an ERA of 1.90 ... Karen Linder has a record of 214-187 in her eighth year with the Golden Flashes ... she is 447-397-1 in her 19th season as a collegiate head coach ... the school's athletics web site is www.kentstatesports.com.
Miami ended regular-season play with records of 22-24-1 overall and 14-9 in MAC action ... the RedHawks placed second in the East Division and are the tourney's fourth seed ... after dropping five of the previous six games, MU ended the regular season with a doubleheader sweep of visiting Northern Illinois ... individually, sophomore C Becca Garcia is hitting .349, while sophomore SS Bianca Paz is batting .331 and had a .397 average in MAC games ... Paz has hits in her last 10 at-bats ... junior Jackie Poggendorf paces the RedHawk pitchers with a 12-7 record and an ERA of 1.45, while sophomore Courtney Salmon is 8-10 with a 2.14 ERA ... head coach Angie Jacobs is in her sixth season with the RedHawks ... the school's athletics web site is www.MURedHawks.com.
Ohio finished the regular season with a record of 20-29, and the Bobcats went 13-11 in MAC play ... OU placed third in the East Division and tied with BGSU for fifth place overall, but won the tiebreaker over the Falcons to claim the fifth seed ... the Bobcats had lost five consecutive games, all in MAC play, before closing the season with a pair of wins over Northern Illinois ... senior CF Erin Chapman leads the team with a .341 batting average, eight homers and 36 RBI ... she hit a game-winning grand slam in the first NIU game, a 9-7 contest ... junior LF Jennifer Tisevich is batting .313, while senior 2B Kiersten Scrima is hitting .305 ... freshman Natalie Armstrong leads the pitching staff with a 7-6 record and a 2.12 ERA, while junior Kerri Harley is 6-11 with a 2.85 ERA on the season ... head coach Roanna Brazier is 185-229 in her eighth season, all with the Bobcats ... the school's athletics web site is www.ohiobobcats.com.
THE SERIES
The Falcons trail Western Michigan, 34-21, in the all-time series between the teams, but BGSU captured two of this season's three regular-season meetings ... the teams split a marathon doubleheader at the BGSU Softball Field on April 9, with the Falcons getting a 1-0 win, but the Broncos rebounding for a 4-3 win in the nightcap ... each game took 12 innings to complete ... the next day, BG captured the series with a 7-1 win.
The Falcons trail the all-time series with Central Michigan by a margin of 57-12, but BGSU's win Saturday (May 8) snapped a 30-game Chippewa series win streak ... after losing the opener, 3-1, the Falcons rebounded for a 4-3 win to close that doubleheader ... Central picked up a 3-2 victory in Sunday's (May 9) game.
Kent State holds a 45-37-1 advantage in the series with BGSU, and the Golden Flashes swept a doubleheader in April 21, by scores of 3-2 and 7-2 ... KSU has won the last five games vs. the Falcons.
BGSU leads Miami by a 43-29 margin in that series ... in the most recent meetings, the Falcons swept a home twinbill by scores of 2-1 and 3-1 last season (April 9, 2003) ... BG has won the last three games vs. the RedHawks.
The Falcons hold a 45-31 series edge over Ohio ... as with Miami, BG has not played Ohio yet in 2004 ... the Falcons swept all three 2003 meetings to run the team's series winning streak to four games ... last year, BG picked up a 3-0 win over the Bobcats at the Red and Black Classic in Louisville, Ky. (March 9, 2003), then won a home DH by scores of 5-0 and 1-0 the following month (April 2, 2003).
RECAPPING LAST WEEK
The Falcons ended the regular season with a three-game home series vs. Central Michigan ... after losing the opening game of Saturday's (May 8) doubleheader, 3-1, BG bounced back for a 4-3 win in the nightcap ... that win snapped a CMU 30-game series win streak ... freshman Ashley Zirkle's sixth-inning single scored pinch-runner Marla Murphy with what proved to be the winning run ... that made a winner of senior Jody Johnson, who threw a complete-game five-hitter ... on Sunday (May 9), the Chippewas scored an unearned run in the top of the seventh for a 3-2 win ... Johnson again tossed a five-hitter, allowing only one earned run.
KERNAHAN NAMED MAC PLAYER OF THE WEEK
On Monday (May 10), senior Jenifer Kernahan was named the MAC's Player of the Week for the West Division ... Kernahan earned the honor for the second time in her career, after hitting a team-high .571 in the Central Michigan series ... the shortstop had five hits in eight at-bats, including a 4-for-5 performance in Saturday's doubleheader ... she went 3-for-3 in the second game that day, belting a pair of doubles ... Kernahan led the Falcons in total bases (six), slugging percentage (.857) and on-base pct. (.667) on the weekend.
IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME
The Falcons' win in Saturday's second game snapped a lengthy losing streak to Central Michigan ... the Chippewas had won 30 consecutive games against the Brown and Orange, including 10-straight series meetings at the BGSU Softball Field ... freshman Ashley Zirkle, who singled home the winning run in Saturday's nightcap, was in third grade the last time the Falcons beat Central, on April 8, 1994 ... BG's last home win over CMU had come the previous season (April 10, 1993).
FALCONS AMONG THE MAC TEAM LEADERS
With the regular season having drawn to a close, the Falcons are ranked among the MAC's elite in both batting and pitching ... as a team, BGSU has an earned-run average of 1.57, the lowest in the MAC ... the Falcons' collective batting average of .252 ranks second in the league ... in league games only, the Brown and Orange finished third in both categories, with a batting average of .257 and an ERA of 1.48.
RANGO'S RAMPAGE THROUGH THE MAC
The Falcons' Gina Rango is well represented among the MAC's individual leaders ... in fact, the sophomore is ranked in nearly every offensive category ... Rango enters the league tourney with a batting average of .365, ranking her second in the league ... Rango leads the conference in total bases and is tied for the lead in doubles ... she is second in the MAC in hits and slugging pct., third in RBI, tied for third in homeruns, deadlocked for fifth in runs scored and is seventh in on-base pct. ... in league games only, Rango finished first or second in the league in no fewer than seven categories ... she finished second in batting, while leading the league in total bases ... Rango was second in on-base pct. and slugging pct., and tied for second in homers, RBI and runs scored.
OTHER FALCONS AMONG THE MAC LEADERS
Rango is not the only Falcon ranked on the MAC lists ... sophomore Lindsay Heimrich is one of only two players to be listed among the league's top-20 in both batting and pitching ... Heimrich is 17th in the MAC in batting average, and ranks fifth in ERA ... at the plate, Heimrich is tied for sixth in hits and is deadlocked for seventh in runs scored ... she is tied for fourth in doubles ... freshman Jeanine Baca is 13th in the MAC - and leads all MAC frosh - in batting ... Baca is third in the league in runs scored and fifth in hits, again pacing all freshmen in both categories ... senior Jenifer Kernahan is sixth in the league in walks, while junior Kristen Anderson is 10th in the MAC in RBI ... in the circle, sophomore Liz Vrabel is third in the league in ERA ... Vrabel is also third in innings pitched, and is fourth in wins, fifth in strikeouts, games started and complete games, tied for fifth in shutouts, and seventh in both appearances and opponent batting avg. ... senior Jody Johnson is 12th in the conference in ERA ... Johnson is fifth in opponent batting average, tied for sixth in complete games, ninth in both victories and shutouts and 10th in strikeouts ... Heimrich is fourth in opponent BA.
IN MAC GAMES...
In league games only, sophomore Lindsay Heimrich finished 10th in batting, while freshman Jeanine Baca was 11th ... Baca was third in hits, with Heimrich placing sixth ... the two players tied for fifth in the league in runs scored ... senior Jenifer Kernahan was tied for fourth in RBI and tied for sixth in walks ... sophomore pitcher Liz Vrabel finished ninth in ERA, with senior Jody Johnson 12th ... Vrabel tied for second in games started, tied for third in both wins and shutouts, and was fourth in opponent batting avg., fifth in innings and complete games, tied for fifth in appearances and sixth in strikeouts ... Johnson finished third in opponent BA, tied for seventh in shutouts and deadlocked for eighth in complete games ... she was 10th in strikeouts.
DIALING LONG DISTANCE
Entering the conference tournament, the Falcons have hit a total of 23 homers this season, a new school record ... the old mark of 21 was set by Leigh Ross-Shaw's 2001 team ... in fact, there has been a noticeable increase in the Falcons' power numbers since Ross-Shaw assumed the head-coaching helm ... in the first 20 years (1979-98) of BGSU varsity softball, no Falcon team had a double-digit homer total ... the school single-season record was eight when Ross-Shaw assumed the job ... BGSU has amassed double-digit homer totals in each of Ross-Shaw's six seasons, with at least 19 round-trippers in five of those six years ... the first 20 Falcon teams combined for a total of 80 homers, an average of 4.00 per year ... in Ross-Shaw's tenure, BG hitters have hit a total of 113 homers, an average of 18.83 per season.
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES
Sophomore Gina Rango currently ranks second on no fewer than four BGSU single-season lists ... Rango currently has a total of 65 hits this year, second only to Amy Lienhardt, who had 83 hits in 1988 ... Rango also has become only the second Falcon in history with over 100 total bases in a season ... she now has 109 TB, trailing only BGSU Hall-of-Famer Lienhardt (126 in 1988) ... Rango's slugging pct. is .612, behind only Lienhardt's .667 mark from that 1998 season ... and, with 39 RBI this year, Rango has moved into a second-place tie on that list ... she is currently deadlocked with Renee Rosemeier (2001), and needs just one more RBI to tie the school record of 40, set by Lynsey Ebel in 2001 ... Rango, of course, already holds the school single-season record for homeruns, with nine to date in 2004 ... sophomore Liz Vrabel is the only pitcher in BGSU history to record two seasons of over 150 strikeouts ... the Falcons have outscored the opposition in five of the seven innings, including a combined advantages of 92-56 in the second through fourth innings ... BG has been outscored in only one inning, the sixth ... but, in that frame, opponents have outscored the Falcons by a 26-9 margin ... sophomore Lindsay Heimrich leads the Falcons in two-out RBI, with 16, while Rango has 14 and junior Kristen Anderson 13 ... freshman Jeanine Baca is batting .444 with two outs this season, with 20 hits in 45 such at-bats ... Heimrich is hitting .373 (19-of-51) with two down ... Rango is hitting .490 over her last 18 games, with eight multiple-hit contests and five multi-RBI games during that time ... she has been intentionally walked three times in that stretch ... sophomore Abby Habicht made 41 starts last season, with only one of those starts coming at catcher ... but, Habicht has started 46 games behind the plate this spring, including each of the last 25 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 42 starts at that spot, including each of the regular season's final 25 games ... Kernahan has also started 10 games at catcher and two in leftfield this year ... she enters Thursday's Western Michigan game with 168 career starts, spread among the catcher (70), shortstop (42), leftfield (34), designated player (11), third base (9) and centerfield (2) spots.
