Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Face WMU to Begin Seven-Game Road Swing
April 20, 2005 | Softball
April 20, 2005
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BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University softball team, having entered the second half of the Mid-American Conference schedule, will hit the road for the next seven games, including four MAC contests ... the Falcons of seventh-year head coach Leigh Ross-Shaw, just a half-game ahead of Western Michigan University in the West Division standings, head to Kalamazoo for a Wednesday (April 20) doubleheader vs. the Broncos, beginning at 2:00 p.m. ... then, the Brown and Orange will take on Marshall University in a single game that will not count in the conference standings ... that game is scheduled for Friday (April 22) at 4:00 p.m. ... the Falcons then face Ohio University in a Saturday (April 23) twinbill, beginning at 1:00 p.m. ... BG will play Ohio State next Wednesday, April 27, before returning home for a weekend series against Buffalo on April 30-May 1.
LEADING OFF
ABOUT THE FALCONS
Bowling Green currently has a record of 22-22 on the season ... the Falcons are 8-6 in MAC play, good for second place in the West Division ... BG split a Wednesday doubleheader at Akron last week, before taking two of three games vs. visiting Eastern Michigan over the weekend ... the Falcons have won nine of the last 11 games, and BGSU is 22-13 after beginning the season with nine consecutive losses ... individually, junior Gina Rango is hitting a team-high .415, and also leads the Falcons in hits (51), runs batted in (30), triples (five), slugging percentage (.585), on-base pct. (.482) and stolen bases (13) ... sophomore Megan McPherson is hitting .294 on the season, while freshman Allison Vallas and junior Lindsay Heimrich are hitting .271 and .264, respectively ... Vallas has 26 RBI and a team-high 14 walks ... she has two homers to tie Rango for the team lead ... soph Jeanine Baca is batting .245 with team-high totals of 26 runs scored and 11 doubles ... in the circle, junior Liz Vrabel has a 13-9 record and a 2.02 ERA ... senior Kristen Anderson is 1-1 with an ERA of just 0.83 in 25 1/3 innings of work, while freshman Emily Gouge is 5-4 on the year, with a 1.78 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 193-167-2 (.536) ... Ross-Shaw is also the school's leader in MAC games, with a league mark of 94-62 (.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
Western Michigan has an overall record of 12-20, and the Broncos are currently 7-6 in MAC play, just a half-game behind second-place BGSU in the MAC's West Division ... WMU is coming off a Sunday (April 17) split at Northern Illinois ... Western is 3-3 at home this season; 3-2 in MAC home contests ... junior Katie Niemi leads the team with a .295 batting average, with sophomore Amanda Heckaman at .241 ... Heckaman leads the team in homers (3) and RBI (13) ... in the circle, junior Tricia VanDerSlik is 7-12 with a 2.33 ERA, while freshman Kyla Sullivan has a 4-8 record and an ERA of 3.47 ... last year, the Broncos went 32-26 overall and 17-7 in MAC action, finishing second in the West ... Kathy Lietke is 109-128-1 in her fifth season at WMU ... the school's athletics web site is www.wmubroncos.com.
Marshall has an overall mark of 26-14 heading into a Wednesday (April 20) home doubleheader vs. Northern Illinois, and the Thundering Herd leads the MAC's East Division with a league record of 11-3 ... MU won two-of-three games vs. visiting Ohio over the weekend, improving to 9-2 at home this spring ... four Marshall starters are hitting over .300, led by freshman Rachel Folder at .412 ... Folden has 35 RBI on the year ... junior sisters Amanda and Jessica Williams are hitting .388 and .308, respectively, while freshman Deanna Tourville is batting .307 ... senior hurler Randi Nielson is 14-6 on the year, with a 2.42 ERA, while sophomore Abigail Harter has a 10-6 record and an ERA of 2.81 ... a year ago, the Herd finished 31-27 overall and 12-12 in MAC action ... head coach Shonda Stanton is now 176-135 in her sixth year in Huntington ... the school's athletics web site is www.herdzone.com.
Ohio is 16-30 on the year, and the Bobcats are 3-11 in MAC play ... OU plays a Wednesday twinbill at Virginia Tech before welcoming the Falcons to town three days later ... the 'Cats are 4-5 at home on the season ... senior Jenny Tisevich leads the team with a .336 batting average, three homers and 25 RBI, while junior Emily Futscher is hitting .280 ... freshman Zoe Heim, one of six different pitchers to see action this year, is 4-9 with a 3.09 ERA ... classmate Michelle Sauter is also 4-9, with a 3.74 ERA ... a year ago, the Bobcats went 20-31 overall and 13-11 in the MAC ... head coach Roanna Brazier is 202-258-1 in her ninth season in Athens ... the school's athletics web site is ohiobobcats.com.
THE SERIES
BGSU trails Western Michigan, 35-22, in the all-time series, but the Falcons took three of last year's five meetings ... the Brown and Orange captured two of the three regular-season games at the BGSU Softball Field (April 9-10, 2004), with two of those games requiring 12 innings ... in the MAC Tournament, the Broncos beat BG, 3-0, in the opener for both teams (May 13, 2004), but the Falcons bounced back with an 8-6 win two days later en route to the tourney crown ... in BGSU's last trip to Kalamazoo, the Broncos swept a doubleheader on a frigid day by scores of 4-3 and 8-3 (March 22, 2003) ... prior to that day, the Falcons had not played at WMU since a DH split on April 10, 1998.
BGSU leads Marshall, 17-4, in that series, but the Herd swept last year's meetings ... in fact, MU has won three consecutive meetings after the Falcons took 17 of the first 18 matchups ... visiting Marshall swept a twinbill in BG, 4-2 and 10-1 (six inn.), last season (March 31, 2004) ... BGSU has won four consecutive road games vs. the Herd, including a three-game series sweep in 2001.
The Falcons hold a 45-31 series lead over Ohio, and BG swept all three meetings in 2003 (the teams did not meet in 2004) ... in the last trip to Athens, the teams split a doubleheader to end the 2002 regular season (May 5, 2002) ... the Falcons have won eight of the last nine meetings in the series.
FALCON NOTES
FRIES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE BAG
Junior Gina Rango, as mentioned, had a 20-game hitting streak come to an end Sunday vs. Eastern Michigan ... that streak is believed to be a school record ... Jenny Ranz had a 17-game hitting streak to begin the 1997 season ... during those 20 games, Rango hit .564, with 31 hits in 55 at-bats ... she scored 13 runs and drove in 19 during that time ... over a span of 21 plate appearances, Rango reached base an incredible 19 times ... she had 10 hits in 12 at-bats in that span, was hit by a pitch, and drew eight walks, including one intentional (and several of the 'unintentional intentional' variety) ... freshman Allison Vallas had three hits in Saturday's second win over EMU, matching her season high ... her four-RBI contest vs. the Eagles was the first by a BG player this year ... after going 36 games in 2005 without scoring more than seven runs, the Falcons then scored at least eight runs four times in a seven-game span ... sophomore Megan McPherson currently has an eight-game hitting streak, and is batting .444 (12-for-27) in that time.
