Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Embark Upon Busy Week
March 28, 2005 | Softball
March 28, 2005
Complete BGSU Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University softball team, after playing just two games last week, is slated to play 10 games over an eight-day span, beginning Tuesday (March 29) ... the Falcons of seventh-year head coach Leigh Ross-Shaw, after splitting an Easter Sunday doubleheader to open the Mid-American Conference schedule, step outside league play for a pair of midweek twinbills ... BGSU will host Detroit in Tuesday action, before meeting #1 Michigan the following afternoon ... both twinbills are scheduled to begin at 2:00 p.m. at the BGSU Softball Field ... then, the Falcons travel to the MAC's 'West Coast' for a weekend series at Northern Illinois ... the teams will play a Saturday (April 2) doubleheader and a Sunday (April 3) single game at NIU's Mary M. Bell Field ... the trip home from DeKalb includes a stop at Valparaiso for a single game on Monday (April 4).
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 179-161-2 (.526) ... Ross-Shaw is also the school's leader in MAC games, with a league mark of 87-57 (.604) ... 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.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
Bowling Green enters the week with a record of 8-16 on the season ... the Falcons split an Easter Sunday twinbill with arch-rival Toledo to begin both the home and MAC portions of the 2005 schedule ... the Rockets won the opener, 2-1, before BGSU rebounded for a 6-2 decision in the nightcap ... the Falcons began the season with nine consecutive losses, but have gone 8-7 since ... individually, junior Gina Rango is hitting a team-high .324, and also leads the team in hits (22), extra-base hits (six) and runs batted in (13) ... classmate Lindsay Heimrich batting .299 on the young season ... sophomores Megan McPherson and Jeanine Baca are hitting .262 and .241, respectively ... Baca has scored 13 runs to date ... in the circle, junior Liz Vrabel has a 5-7 record and a 2.43 ERA, while Heimrich is 3-6 with a 2.66 ERA.
THE OPPONENTS
Detroit has an overall record of 4-7 entering the week, and the Titans are looking to snap a two-game losing streak ... after opening the season with nine contests at the Rebel Spring Games in Florida, UDM dropped a Saturday doubleheader at Purdue ... individually, sophomore Sarah Dickey leads the team with a .366 batting average, followed closely by seniors Jessie Kish (.360) and Anna Ollgaard (.355) ... Ollgaard has 11 RBI in just 10 games played ... in the circle, no fewer than five pitchers have started at least one game to date ... senior Lisa Ferguson has pitched just nine innings on the year, but leads the team with a 3-0 record ... junior Adrienne Baran has a 2.71 ERA ... last season, the Titans went 18-31 overall and 6-14 in Horizon League play for head coach Bob Wilkerson ... the school's athletics web site is www.detroittitans.com.
Michigan is 31-1 on the year, and the Wolverines are the number-one team in the nation ... U-M is just the seventh school to be voted #1 in the 11-year history of the NFCA/USA Today poll, and the first non-West Coast school to earn a #1 ranking midseason ... the Wolverines lost the season opener to then #17 Baylor, 7-6, and have reeled off a 31-game winning streak since that time ... U-M has allowed a total of just 22 runs in those 31 games ... the team's latest games came at the Louisville Classic, where the Maize and Blue went 4-0 over the weekend ... junior Tiffany Haas is hitting .425 on the year, while senior Jessica Merchant is batting .365 with 10 homeruns and 28 RBI ... four players have at least 22 RBI on the year ... U-M is hitting .318 as a team, with a total of 44 homers ... in the circle, sophomore Lorilyn Wilson is 12-0 with a microscopic 0.27 ERA, while junior Jennie Ritter is 14-0 with an 0.76 ERA ... last year, the Wolverines went 54-13 overall and 17-3 in Big Ten Conference play, and U-M advanced to the College World Series ... Carol Hutchins is 883-339-4 in her 21st season at the U-M helm, and 906-350-4 in her 22nd season as a collegiate head coach ... the school's athletics web site is MGoBlue.com.
Northern Illinois is 13-9 overall, and the Huskies are 2-0 in MAC play after a Sunday (March 27) sweep of Akron ... NIU is scheduled to play a Tuesday doubleheader at Loyola (Ill.) before hosting the Falcons over the weekend ... sophomore Ellen Stoddard leads the team with a .408 batting average and 16 RBI, while junior Kelly Drozd is hitting .348 with team-best totals of 15 runs and 23 hits ... junior Lindsey LaChiana has a team-best 1.95 ERA and is 9-4 on the season to date ... senior Kathy Dearborn is 4-4 with a 3.63 ERA for head coach Donna Martin ... a year ago, Northern finished 14-41 overall and went 6-18 in MAC play ... Martin is 294-262-10 in her 11th season as a collegiate head coach, all in DeKalb ... the school's athletics web site is NIUHuskies.com.
Valparaiso is 0-17 on the season, and the Crusaders are 0-4 in Mid-Continent Conference play to date ... VU has been outscored by a 117-21 count this year ... the team has eight games in four days scheduled for this week, including a Wednesday (March 30) doubleheader at Notre Dame and a home twinbill vs. Michigan State the next day ... then, the Crusaders play a four-game weekend set vs. Western Illinois ... sophomore Megan Carroll is hitting a team-high .333, and also leads the Crusaders with 12 hits, five doubles and five runs scored ... classmate Taylor Callahan is hitting .244 ... senior Brittany Atteberry is 0-3 with a team-low 3.04 ERA, while freshman Chris Halstead has a record of 0-9 and a 5.68 ERA ... last year's Valpo squad went 21-34 overall and 13-11 in Mid-Con play ... head coach Randy Schneider is 21-51 in his second season with the Crusaders, and has a mark of 121-88-1 in his sixth season overall ... the school's athletics web site is www.valpo.edu/athletics.
THE SERIES
BGSU leads Toledo, 25-7, in the all-time series between the teams, and the Falcons have won the last two meetings ... BG swept a doubleheader in the Motor City last year (April 29, 2004) by scores of 4-1 and 6-2 ... the Falcons have won 13 of the last 15 meetings, but the two Titan wins in that time came in the teams' last games in BG (2-0 and 5-4 on March 26, 2003) ... the teams have met in a twinbill every year since 1995.
Michigan holds a 23-5 lead in that series over the Falcons ... the Wolverines have a two-game winning streak after sweeping a twinbill in Ann Arbor last March 25 (8-0 in five innings, 9-5) ... two years ago, the Falcons dropped a 4-0 decision to the visiting Wolverines, but picked up a 3-1 win in the nightcap at the BGSU Softball Field (March 25, 2003) ... that was the Falcons' lone victory in the last 12 meetings, dating to 1992.
BGSU and Northern Illinois are deadlocked, 11-11, in that series, but the Falcons have won the last four games ... the Falcons won all three of last year's games at the BGSU Softball Field (April 24-25, 2004), by scores of 11-0, 4-0 and 3-2 ... two years ago, the host Huskies swept a three-game regular-season series (April 26-27), but the Falcons rebounded for a 7-2 victory in the MAC Tournament (May 8).
BGSU and Valparaiso have never met on the softball diamond.
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.
FALCON NOTES
