Falcons Return to MAC Action, Face Akron and EMU this Week

April 13, 2005

BGSU Release, Stats & Records (11 pages) in PDF Format
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BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University softball team, riding a season-best six-game win streak, returns to Mid-American Conference action for the next seven games, beginning with a Wednesday (April 13) doubleheader at the site of the league tournament ... the Falcons of seventh-year head coach Leigh Ross-Shaw, after sweeping three doubleheaders in as many days, will head to Firestone Stadium for a doubleheader vs. the University of Akron, beginning at 5:00 p.m. ... then, the Brown and Orange will return home for a weekend series against Eastern Michigan University ... the Falcons and Eagles will play a Saturday (April 16) doubleheader and a Sunday (April 17) single game, beginning at 1:00 p.m. each day at the BGSU Softball Field.

LEADING OFF

Falcon freshman Emily Gouge was named the MAC's Pitcher of the Week Monday (April 11), for the first time in her BGSU career ... Gouge, the third different Falcon to earn Pitcher-of-the-Week honors this season, got the award after going 3-0 with a microscopic 0.30 ERA last week ... in MAC play, she was 1-0 with an ERA of 0.00, going 10 innings without allowing a run vs. league foes ... overall, she allowed opponents to hit just .141 against her on the week.

Junior Gina Rango had quite a day at the plate in the Falcons' doubleheader sweep of Oakland Monday (April 11) ... Rango was a perfect 6-for-6 at the plate, before the Grizzlies issued her an intentional walk in her final plate appearance of the day ... on the day, Rango raised her seasonal batting average 34 points, to .404.

In the OU opener, Rango had two runs batted in, in the process breaking the school career record in that category ... Rango, just a junior, now has a total of 92 RBI as a Falcon, topping the old mark of 91 set by Dena Romstadt (1990-93) ... Rango also holds down the top spot on the BGSU career lists for batting average (.377), homeruns (15) and slugging percentage (.567) ... the BGSU season and career records can be found on pages 8-11 of these notes.

Over the weekend, Falcon pitching posted four consecutive shutouts for the first time in school history ... BGSU hurlers had blanked three-straight opponents on eight prior occasions ... Gouge threw two of those shutouts, while senior Kristen Anderson and junior Liz Vrabel threw one apiece, as the Falcons swept Ball State and IPFW.

Rango currently has a 16-game hitting streak, the longest of her career ... in fact, the streak is the longest by a Falcon since Jenny Ranz had a 17-game streak to begin the 1997 season ... Rango is hitting an eye-popping .551 during her streak, going 27-for-49 with 13 RBI in that time.

After setting a season high with eight runs in Sunday's (April 10) second game vs. IPFW, the Falcons matched that total in the very next game, the opener at Oakland ... BGSU had 12 hits in each of those games, the team's first back-to-back double-digit contests this season.

ABOUT THE FALCONS
Bowling Green currently has a record of 19-20 on the season ... the Falcons are 5-4 in MAC play, good for a second-place tie in the West Division ... BG is riding a season-best six-game winning streak after sweeping doubleheaders from Ball State, IPFW and Oakland over a three-day period ... the Falcons have won eight of the last 10 games, and BGSU is 19-11 after beginning the season with nine consecutive losses ... individually, junior Gina Rango is hitting a team-high .404, and also leads the Falcons in hits (46), runs batted in (23), triples (four), slugging percentage (.544), on-base pct. (.443) and stolen bases (12) ... sophomore Megan McPherson is hitting .282 on the season, while freshman Allison Vallas and junior Lindsay Heimrich each are hitting .272 ... Vallas has 20 RBI and a team-high 14 walks ... senior Kristen Anderson is hitting .245 with 12 RBI, while soph Jeanine Baca is batting .231 with team-high totals of 22 runs scored and nine doubles ... in the circle, junior Liz Vrabel has a 10-9 record and a 2.31 ERA ... Anderson is 1-1 with an ERA of just 0.83 in 25 1/3 innings of work, while freshman Emily Gouge has won her last five decisions ... Gouge is now 5-2 on the year, with a 1.72 ERA.

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 190-165-2 (.535) ... Ross-Shaw is also the school's leader in MAC games, with a league mark of 91-60 (.603) ... 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 the Falcon 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 arriving at BG, having spent the 2000 season on the staff at Toledo.

THE OPPONENTS
Akron has an overall record of 18-16, and the Zips are currently 2-8 in MAC play ... UA is coming off a 1-2 weekend at Buffalo, winning the last game by a 3-1 score ... UA has a 3-3 home record to date ... individually, junior Sara Zilles has a team-high batting average of .326, while senior Kelly Quigley is hitting .314 and leads the Zips with 10 homers and 29 RBI this year ... in the circle, senior Tina McCauley is 13-10 with a UA-leading ERA of 1.85 ... junior Megan MacKenzie has a 5-5 mark and a 3.12 ERA ... last season, the Zips went 26-25 overall and finished with a MAC record of 10-14 ... Julie Wright is in her first season as a collegiate head coach ... the school's athletics web site is www.GoZips.com.

Eastern Michigan is 9-13 on the season, and the Eagles are 5-5 entering a Wednesday (April 13) home doubleheader vs. Toledo ... Eastern saw a three-game winning streak snapped with Sunday's loss to Northern Illinois ... that streak included a victory over Michigan State ... sophomore Lauren Clark leads the team with a .333 batting average and a total of 15 RBI ... senior Liz Flack is hitting .295 and is tied with Clark for the team lead in homers, with four ... sophomore Aimee Woodrum leads the EMU pitching staff with five wins (5-5) and a 2.20 ERA, while classmate Michelle Lloyd is 3-4 with a 3.45 ERA ... last season, the Eagles finished 19-30 overall and placed fourth in the MAC's West Division with a league ledger of 8-16 ... head coach Karen Baird is 34-81 in her third season in Ypsilanti, and 132-173 in her eighth year as a collegiate head coach ... the school's athletics web site is www.emich.edu/goeagles.

THE SERIES
BGSU leads Akron, 35-18-1, in the all-time series, and the Falcons took two of three games the last time the teams met, at the BGSU Softball Field two years ago (April 18-19, 2003) ... the Falcons and Zips have never played at Firestone Stadium, and BG has not played UA on the road since sweeping a doubleheader four seasons ago (April 18, 2001) ... the Falcons are 15-7 in road games against the Zips, and BG has won the last four road contests in the series.

The Falcons hold a 39-29 lead over Eastern Michigan in that series, but the Eagles took two of last season's three meetings, in Ypsilanti (May 1-2) ... BG has a 23-9 lead in home games vs. the Hurons/Eagles over the years, and the Falcons have won the last 11 meetings at the BGSU Softball Field ... the last time Eastern ventured to BG, the Brown and Orange swept a three-game series to close the 2003 regular season (May 2-3, 2003) ... that was Eastern's first trip to Bowling Green since 1998 ... the last EMU victory at the BGSU Softball Field came on May 13, 1994.

FALCON NOTES

Freshman Emily Gouge has not allowed an earned run in over 23 innings, dating to the Valparaiso game (April 4) ... in fact, over her last eight appearances, Gouge is 5-0 with an ERA of just 0.64 ... she had a streak of 17 2/3 innings without allowing a run of any kind prior to allowing an unearned run at Oakland.

That OU run broke a shutout string of exactly 29 innings by the BGSU pitching staff.

The heart of the Falcons' order combined to reach base in all 12 plate appearances in the opening game at Oakland ... number-four hitter Gina Rango had four singles in as many trips, while freshman Allison Vallas had a double, walked twice and reached on an error ... senior Kristen Anderson was 3-for-3 with a base on balls.

Rango enters the Akron DH with several impressive streaks ... in addition to her 16-game hitting streak, Rango has reached base in each of her last eight plate appearances ... she drew a walk in the final inning of Sunday's second win over IPFW, then had singles in six consecutive at-bats at Oakland, before the Golden Grizzlies intentionally walked her in her final trip to the plate.

Junior Liz Vrabel has 130 strikeouts in 121 1/3 innings this season ... she now has 468 career strikeouts, ranking second on that BGSU list ... Vrabel trails only Jennifer Wolf, who had 505 K's from 1993-97.

Vrabel now has 42 wins at BGSU, ranking her fourth on that school career list ... she has 6.65 strikeouts per seven innings in her BG tenure, the school record by a wide margin ... Vrabel also is on the school career lists for appearances (91, sixth), games started (68, fifth), complete games (51, 4th), innings pitched (492 1/3, fifth), shutouts (14, fifth) and ERA (1.55, fifth).

Early April has been kind to the Falcons over the past few years ... BGSU is currently riding a six-game win streak, and the Falcons are 9-3 in the month of April this year to date ... last year's team was just 14-20 on April 9, before winning seven of the next eight games to begin the team's run that culminated in a MAC Tournament title ... in 2003, the Falcons had a 10-game winning streak, tying the school record, from April 2-18.

The Falcons already have topped last season's totals in both triples and stolen bases ... BG has 11 triples, after registering six during all of last year ... the Falcons now have 36 stolen bases in 2005, after swiping 29 last year ... no Falcon had more than seven steals in 2004, but two players - Rango (12) and sophomore Megan McPherson (11) - already have hit double digits in that category this spring.

The Falcons entered play on Sunday, April 10, with an overall record of 15-20 ... last season, after a win on April 10, BGSU had an identical 15-20 mark ... BGSU entered the week with a 5-4 MAC record after being 4-4 in league play last April 10 ... the 2004 Falcons, of course, went on to win the conference tournament and advance to the NCAA Regionals.

FRIES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE BAG *
Freshman Emily Gouge set a career high with eight strikeouts in her win over IPFW, then tied that mark by whiffing eight Oakland batters the next day ... the Falcons' two wins at Ball State Saturday (April 9) give BG a nine-game winning streak vs. the Cardinals, dating to April of 2002 ... junior Liz Vrabel has nine losses this season, but two have come against the team ranked number-one in the country at that time (Arizona and Michigan), with another loss being a complete-game two-hitter and another a three-hitter ... Vrabel is 4-2 with a 1.50 ERA in MAC play this year, having allowed just 22 hits in 42 innings against league opponents ... freshman Brecken Libbe had her first collegiate two-hit game in the nightcap at Oakland ... sophomore Megan McPherson has had two hits in each of her last three games ... McPherson now has eight two-hit games this year and 13 in her career ... sophomore Angie Ortiz had the first three-RBI game of her BG career Sunday vs. IPFW ... freshman Allison Vallas had a pair of three-RBI contests in less than a week, in games vs. Valparaiso and IPFW ... senior Kristen Anderson had her first three-hit game as a Falcon vs. Oakland, going 3-for-3 in the opener ... junior Gina Rango's four-hit contest in that same OU game was the second of her career ... Rango also had four hits vs. Georgia State on March 20, 2004.

* phrase shamelessly stolen from Nate Ewell, former hockey SID at Michigan State University who is now with insidecollegehockey.com

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