Bowling Green State University Athletics
Fall's First Foray Fine For Four Falcon Freshmen
September 21, 2004 | Softball
Sept. 21, 2004
MAUMEE, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University softball team found some success in the first intercollegiate competition of the fall season. The Falcons of head coach Leigh Ross-Shaw, the defending Mid-American Conference Tournament champions, won three of four games at last weekend's (Sept. 18-19) Toledo Fall Showcase at the Lucas County Recreation Center in Maumee.
The 2004-05 Falcon roster features 14 returning letterwinners from the league tourney championship team, but the newcomers to the squad performed well while getting some valuable game experience.
On the weekend, BGSU picked up wins over Toledo, Detroit and Findlay while falling to Eastern Michigan by a 2-0 count. Each of the four Falcon freshman, plus another 'newcomer,' had some success in the tourney.
In her first collegiate game, Allison Vallas (Perrysburg, Ohio) had a 3-for-3 performance at the plate, with a single, double and a triple in the win over UT. Her former high-school and current college teammate, Brecken Libbe (Perrysburg, Ohio), caught for junior hurler Liz Vrabel in the Falcons' win over Detroit. The Vrabel-Libbe battery was good for a two-hit shutout of the Titans.
Another freshman, Emily Gouge (Vero Beach, Fla.), saw her first collegiate action vs. Findlay, and her appearance was a success, to say the least. Gouge threw a one-hitter, with 13 strikeouts in that BGSU shutout win.
In that game, junior Gina Rango hit a three-run homerun, estimated by several observers to have travelled 265 or 270 feet. Rango, with two seasons of eligibility remaining, already owns a share of the BGSU career homer record with 14. (Fall stats do not count in players' career numbers.)
Freshman D.J. DeLong (Hamilton, Ohio) and sophomore Angela Ortiz are some new faces on the diamond who made some highlight-reel defensive plays throughout the tournament. Ortiz sat out last season as a redshirt.
The Falcon pitchers -- Gouge, Vrabel, junior Lindsay Heimrich and senior Kristen Anderson -- combined to allow only three runs in the four games.
BGSU will conclude fall ball with a trip to Columbus for the Ohio Charity Classic on Oct. 2-3. The Falcons' spring schedule is tentatively set to begin on the weekend of Feb. 25-27, at The Frost Classic in Chattanooga, Tenn. Following four tournaments to open the 2005 schedule, the Falcons begin the home portion of the spring slate with a March 25 doubleheader vs. UT.
