Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Open Home Schedule vs. Toledo Friday
March 24, 2005 | Softball
March 24, 2005
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BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University softball team, after playing 22 games in four tournaments, finally returns to the Midwest to play at home ... the Falcons of seventh-year head coach Leigh Ross-Shaw, after going 3-2 at last weekend's Hoo's Who Invitational in Charlottesville, Va., begin the home portion of the schedule Friday (March 25) ... the Falcons commence a six-game homestand with a Mid-American Conference doubleheader vs. the arch-rival University of Toledo ... first pitch of the first game is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. at the BGSU Softball Field.
LEADING OFF
HEAD COACH Leigh Ross-Shaw
Leigh Ross-Shaw, the winningest coach in school history, is in her seventh season as a collegiate head coach, all with the Falcons ... she currently has an overall record of 178-160-2 (.526) ... Ross-Shaw is also the school's leader in MAC games, with a league mark of 86-56 (.606) ... she ranks first in BG history in conference winning percentage, and is second in overall winning pct., trailing only Sandy Haines (.557; 57-45-3).
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 100 overall wins as well as 50 MAC victories ... Ross-Shaw is the only head coach in school history with three 30-win seasons, and continues to set new school marks with each win.
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 Univ. 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 2001, she was inducted into the UT Athletics Hall of Fame.
ASSISTANT COACH Kyle Jamieson
Kyle Jamieson is in his second season on Ross-Shaw's staff ... 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.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
Bowling Green enters the UT series with a record of 7-15 on the season ... the Falcons won three of the five games at last weekend's Hoo's Who Tournament in Charlottesville, Va. (March 18-30) ... BGSU downed the Rockets, East Carolina and Rutgers, and lost to host Virginia ... in championship-round play, the Falcons fell to ECU ... the Falcons began the season with nine consecutive losses, but have gone 7-6 since ... individually, junior Gina Rango is hitting a team-high .311 with a team-high 10 runs batted in, while classmate Lindsay Heimrich batting .295 on the young season ... sophomores Megan McPherson and Jeanine Baca are hitting .255 and .247, respectively ... Baca has scored 12 runs to date ... in the circle, junior Liz Vrabel has a 4-6 record and a 2.51 ERA, while Heimrich is 3-6 with a 2.66 ERA ... freshman Emily Gouge has an ERA of 3.85.
THE OPPONENT
Toledo has a record of 14-10 this season to date, the Rockets' best start since 1995 ... UT, like BG, competed at the Hoo's Who Tournament ... the Rockets went 1-3 in round-robin play, but won a pair of games in Sunday's (March 20) championship round, beating Rutgers and host Virginia, before falling to East Carolina in the final game ... junior SS Gina Muratori leads the team with a .431 batting average, while sophomore CF Erica Singer is hitting .384 this year to date ... the Rockets are hitting .288 as a team ... in the circle, senior Kim Pettitt is 9-4 with a 1.34 ERA, while sophomore Stephanie Moore has a 5-6 record and an ERA of 2.56 ... last season, the Rockets went 21-34 overall, and finished MAC play with a 5-18 league record ... head coach Jo Ann Gordon is 46-79 in her third year in the Glass City and 93-132 in her sixth season overall ... the school's athletics web site is www.utrockets.com.
THE SERIES
BGSU leads Toledo, 47-32, in the all-time series between the teams, and that series lead includes a 7-1 Falcon win last weekend (March 18) in Charlottesville, Va. ... last year, the teams opened the MAC schedule at UT, with BGSU taking two of the three games ... the Falcons swept the three home meetings in 2003, the last time the teams met at the BGSU Softball Field, and BG has won 11 consecutive home games vs. the Rockets, dating to the 1997 season ... overall, the Falcons have won 16 of the 17 games between the arch-rival schools since Leigh Ross-Shaw became head coach at BGSU.
FALCONS PICKED SECOND
Bowling Green was picked to finish second in the MAC's West Division in 2005 ... the poll is a result of voting by the league's 13 head coaches ... Miami and Central Michigan were picked to win their respective divisions, with MU predicted to win the MAC Tournament.
ROSS-SHAW AGREES TO FIVE-YEAR EXTENSION
In August of 2004, Bowling Green State University reached an agreement with softball coach Leigh Ross-Shaw on a five-year contract extension ... the contract runs through June 30, 2009 ... Ross-Shaw guided the 2004 Falcons to the first MAC Tournament title in school history ... she is the school's all-time leader in victories and winning percentage, and is the only coach in school history with three 30-win seasons.
HEIMRICH NAMED MAC PITCHER OF WEEK
Last Monday (March 14), Falcon junior Lindsay Heimrich was named a MAC Pitcher of the Week, the league office announced ... Heimrich earned the honor for the first time this season ... the honor marked her first as a pitcher, but she had been named Player of the Week on two occasions, once each as a freshman (March 18, 2003) and sophomore (April 12, 2004) ... Heimrich earned the pitching honor after going 3-1 with a 1.20 ERA in Las Vegas, Nev., picking up all three of BGSU's wins at the Eller Media Stadium Classic ... she allowed opponents to hit just .157 against her ... in her final three games on the weekend, Heimrich threw a two-hitter and a pair of three-hitters ... she allowed just three hits in a 2-0 shutout win over Minnesota, then threw another three-hitter in a 6-1 win over New Mexico State ... Heimrich surrendered just two hits in a 2-0 win over Pacific ... in those three games, Heimrich was 3-0 with a miniscule ERA of 0.33 and an opponent batting average of only .114.
FALCON NOTES
