Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons End Season With 34-30 Mark
June 03, 2004 | Softball
June 3, 2004
Complete Release, Stats & Player Bios (20 Pages) in PDF Format
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BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University softball team, after winning the Mid-American Conference Tournament for the first time in school history, has concluded the 2004 season ... the Falcons of sixth-year head coach Leigh Ross-Shaw, after playing a pair of games in the NCAA Region No. 6 Championship in Ann Arbor, Mich., end the campaign with an overall record of 34-30 ... BGSU posted a MAC ledger of 13-11 to finish third in the West Division and in a fifth-place tie overall ... in the MAC Tournament, the sixth-seeded Falcons lost the opening game, then reeled off five consecutive wins to take the title ... BGSU eliminated, in order, the first, second, third and fourth seeds from the tournament ... the Falcons lost to Oregon State and UIC in NCAA play.
THE ROAD TO THE REGIONAL
BGSU finished with an overall record of 34-30 on the season ... the Falcons went 13-11 in MAC play to place third in the West Division and tie for fifth overall ... BGSU was seeded sixth for the six-team MAC Tournament, and the Falcons lost to Western Michigan, 3-0, to open tourney play ... but, the Falcons knocked off each of the top-four seeds, in order, advancing through the loser's bracket to win the tournament with five consecutive victories ... BG beat top-seeded Central Michigan (3-0), #2 Kent State (6-0) and #3 WMU (8-6) to advance to the championship bracket ... needing to defeat #4 Miami twice on Sunday, May 16, the Falcons did just that, topping the RedHawks by scores of 1-0 and 4-3.
HIGHLIGHTS/STORYLINES
 May 16, 2004 -- Head coach Leigh Ross-Shaw and the Falcons watch the NCAA Selection Show to see where the team is headed for regional play  |
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A VALUABLE EXPERIENCE
The Falcons, as mentioned, suffered a pair of losses in NCAA Regional action ... but, Leigh Ross-Shaw's youthful team hopes to use the setbacks to Oregon State and UIC as a learning experience, as the Falcons look to get back to NCAA play in the near future ... Ross-Shaw's 2004 team had only three seniors (including fourth-year Falcon Marla Murphy, a junior in terms of eligibility) and two juniors on the 20-woman squad ... the Falcons' starting lineup during MAC Tournament and NCAA Regional play featured four freshmen -- including an all-frosh outfield -- three sophomores, one junior and one senior (shortstop Jenifer Kernahan) ... the pitcher was either a senior (Jody Johnson) or a sophomore (Liz Vrabel or Lindsay Heimrich).
RANGO EARNS REGIONAL RAVES
Sophomore Gina Rango was named to the 2004 Great Lakes All-Region Team on May 21 ... Rango was selected to the first team for the second consecutive season ... a native of North Lima, Ohio (Boardman H.S.), Rango is the first player in school history to earn all-region honors twice ... only four times has a Falcon player been named to the all-region first team, and Rango has now done so in each of her two years ... Amy Lienhardt (1988) and Rachelle Highfill (1993) are BGSU's other first-team selections ... Rango was one of only three MAC players chosen to the team, and one of only two first-team picks (Ohio's Erin Chapman was the MAC's other first-team selection) ... the all-region team is the result of voting by head coaches within the Great Lakes Region.
THE LONG BALL
Freshman Jeanine Baca led off the bottom of the first inning against UIC by hitting the first pitch she saw for a homerun ... it marked the second time in 2004 that Baca hit the first pitch of the first inning out of the park ... the other such homer also came in the state of Michigan, also against a Horizon League team ... Baca homered on the first pitch of the first game in a doubleheader sweep at Detroit on April 29 ... the homer also was Baca's second of the year at Alumni Field ... she had hit a round-tripper during the second game of the Falcons' March 25 DH at Michigan ... four of Baca's five homers on the year came in the state of Michigan.
 The Falcons celebrate their MAC Tournament title (photo by Mike Metzger) |
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Sophomore Gina Rango's sixth-inning double vs. UIC was her 18th of the season, setting a new school record ... the old mark of 17 was set by Dena Romstadt in 1993 ... that '93 season marked the last time the Falcons advanced to the NCAA Regionals.
HEAD COACH LEIGH ROSS-SHAW
Leigh Ross-Shaw has completed her sixth season as a collegiate head coach, all with the Falcons, and has an overall record of 171-145-2 (.541) ... BGSU's final win of 2003, vs. Northern Illinois in last season's MAC Tournament, made Ross-Shaw the winningest coach in school history ... this season, Ross-Shaw also became the school's leader in MAC victories, and she is also first in league winning percentage ... she has a league mark of 86-56 (.606) through the 2004 season ... 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 ... she has become the only head coach in school history with three 30-win seasons ... 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, 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 has wrapped up 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 had MAC ties prior to his arrival at BG, having spent the 2000 season on the staff at Toledo ... Steve Babinski completed 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 has completed her first season on the coaching staff, after winding up 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.
PICKING UP SOME HARDWARE
The Falcons picked up a number of awards during the week of the MAC Tournament ... on Wednesday evening, May 12, three sophomores and a freshman earned all-league honors, as Gina Rango was named to the All-MAC First Team, while Jeanine Baca, Lindsay Heimrich and Liz Vrabel all were chosen to the league's second squad ... Rango has earned all-league first-team honors in each of her first two seasons, while Vrabel has been a second-team pick both years ... the next day, Heimrich was named to the Academic All-District First Team ... then, on Sunday, May 16, BGSU picked up a coveted team award, the MAC Tournament championship trophy ... and, four Falcons -- Heimrich, Rango, Abby Habicht and Jody Johnson -- were named to the All-Tournament Team, with Johnson being honored as the tourney MVP.
NOTING THE FALCONS
The Falcons completed the 2004 season with an overall record of 34-30, and the Brown and Orange went 13-11 in Mid-American Conference play to finish third in the West Division and earn the sixth seed for the league tourney ... as mentioned numerous times on the previous pages, BGSU won that tournament to earn the MAC's automatic NCAA berth ... BG finished the season with records of 12-5 in home games, 8-14 on the road and 14-11 in neutral-site contests ... in MAC play, BG went 9-5 in home games and 4-6 on the road ... as a team, the Falcons had a batting average of .251 to the opponents' .205 ... sophomore 3B Gina Rango led the team with a .372 batting average ... Rango also paced the Brown and Orange in hits (74), doubles (18), homers (nine), runs batted in (42), slugging pct. (.608), on-base pct. (.429) and total bases (121) ... Rango and sophomore 1B/P Lindsay Heimrich were the only two Falcons to have started all 64 games to date, while junior RF/DP Kristen Anderson and freshman CF Jeanine Baca each made 63 starts and senior SS Jenifer Kernahan and sophomore C Abby Habicht 62 apiece ... freshman 2B Megan McPherson was in the starting lineup for 61 games ... Baca finished second on the team with a .304 batting average, while Heimrich hit .293 ... Baca led the team with 37 runs scored, four ahead of Rango's total ... Baca struck out just eight times in a school-record 207 at-bats this season ... she paced the Falcons in at-bats, and was second with 63 hits ... Baca had five homers, while Anderson and Heimrich had four apiece ... Anderson and Heimrich tied for second on the team with 29 RBI ... Heimrich had 31 runs and 58 hits (including 13 doubles) on the year ... in the circle, Falcon pitchers had a combined ERA of 1.60, lowest in the MAC ... sophomore Liz Vrabel had a 15-16 record and a 1.46 ERA, while Heimrich went 5-4 with a 1.61 ERA ... Vrabel, who had 21 complete games in her 27 starts, struck out 170 batters and allowed opponents to hit just .208 against her ... Heimrich also had an opponent batting average of .208... senior Jody Johnson, the MAC Tournament MVP, was 14-10 with a 1.78 ERA and an opponent BA of only .201 ... Johnson had 29 starts, 21 complete games and 125 strikeouts in her final season.
 (photo by Mike Metzger) |
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In 2004, the Falcons appeared 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 marked 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 14-17, having gone 1-2 on six of the first eight occasions the Falcons 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 ninth time was the charm, however, as BG went 5-1 to win the '04 tourney ... prior to this season, 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.
SMART ... VERY SMART
Sophomore Lindsay Heimrich has earned several academic, as well as athletic, awards in 2004 ... the Waterville, Ohio, native was chosen to the Academic All-District First Team ... Heimrich, who entered the spring semester with a perfect 4.00 GPA, also was selected to the Academic All-MAC Team ... additionally, she was named to the All-MAC Second Team ... in the league tourney, Heimrich hit a sixth-inning grand slam to help her own cause, and picked up the win in the circle as the Falcons downed Western Michigan ... the next day, she was named to the MAC's All-Tournament Team after the Brown and Orange won the title.
FALCONS AMONG THE MAC TEAM LEADERS
The Falcons finished the season ranked among the MAC's elite in both batting and pitching ... as a team, BGSU had an earned-run average of 1.60, the lowest in the MAC ... the Falcons' collective batting average of .251 ranked 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 was well represented among the MAC's individual leaders ... in fact, the sophomore finished the year ranked in nearly every offensive category ... Rango had a batting average of .375, ranking her second in the league ... Rango led the conference in hits, doubles and total bases ... she was second in the MAC in RBI and slugging pct., tied for third in homeruns, deadlocked for fourth in runs scored and fifth in on-base pct. ... in league games only, Rango finished first or second in the league in no fewer than seven categories ... she was second in batting, while leading the league in total bases ... Rango was also second in on-base pct. and slugging pct., and tied for second in homers, RBI and runs.
OTHER FALCONS AMONG THE MAC LEADERS
Rango was not the only Falcon ranked on the MAC lists ... sophomore Lindsay Heimrich tied for third in the league in doubles ... she was sixth in the league in both runs scored and hits, and eighth in total bases ... freshman Jeanine Baca was third in the league in both runs and hits, leading the league's frosh in both categories ... Baca was tied for fifth in the MAC in total bases, and finished 17th in batting ... senior Jenifer Kernahan tied for fourth in the league in walks (just one shy of the league lead), while Heimrich and junior Kristen Anderson tied for 10th in the MAC in RBI ... in the circle, sophomore Liz Vrabel finished fourth in ERA, while senior Jody Johnson was 10th ... Vrabel third in the league in appearances, and was fourth in innings pitched and wins, fifth in strikeouts, complete games and opponent batting avg. and tied for sixth in games started and shutouts ... Johnson tied for third in starts, and was fourth in opponent BA, fifth in wins and shutouts, tied (with Vrabel) for fifth in complete games, seventh in innings, tied for seventh in appearances and eighth in strikeouts.
IN MAC GAMES...
In league games only, sophomore Lindsay Heimrich finished 10th in the MAC 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
The Falcons hit a total of 26 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 116 homers, an average of 19.33 per season.
RANGO'S RECORD COLLECTION
Sophomore Gina Rango certainly has made her mark on the BGSU record books ... Rango set five school single-season records in 2004 ... Rango had nine homeruns and 42 runs batted in this year, setting new standards ... in fact, Rango already owns a share of the BGSU career HR mark, with 14 ... she hit 18 doubles this year, another school mark ... Rango also set new records (tied by some of her 2004 teammates) for games played and games started, with 64 ... Rango ranked second on no fewer than four other BGSU single-season lists ... she trails only BGSU Hall-of-Famer Amy Lienhardt on each list ... this season, Rango had totals of 74 hits and 121 total bases, a .615 slugging pct. and a .372 batting avg. ... in her incredible 1988 campaign, Lienhardt had 83 hits, 126 TB, a .667 slugging pct. and a .439 batting avg.
ONCE YOU HIT 30, IT'S ALL DOWNHILL...
The 2004 edition of the Falcons became the sixth team in school history to win at least 30 games, and Leigh Ross-Shaw is the first BGSU coach with three 30-win seasons ... BG's total of 34 wins tied the '04 team for fourth in school history ... the 1992 team, coached by Jacquie Joseph, won a school-record 37 games, while both the 1988 team and Ross-Shaw's 2001 squad won 35 contests ... Joseph's 1993 team, the last BG team to advance to NCAA play, also won 34 games.
