Bowling Green State University Athletics
BGSU Battles Buckeyes, Bulls
April 26, 2005 | Softball
April 26, 2005
BGSU Release, Stats & Records (11 pages) in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University softball team concludes non-league play this week, then wraps up the home portion of the 2005 schedule this weekend ... the Falcons of seventh-year head coach Leigh Ross-Shaw, battling for a berth in the Mid-American Conference Tournament, step outside of league play for one final time, heading to Columbus for a Wednesday (April 27) doubleheader at the Ohio State University ... first pitch of the first game is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. at Buckeye Field ... then, the Brown and Orange will wrap up the home schedule with a three-game weekend series vs. the University at Buffalo ... the Falcons will host the Bulls in a Saturday (April 30) twinbill and a Sunday (May 1) single game ... action begins at 1:00 p.m. both days at the BGSU Softball Field ... then, after a break for exams, the Falcons will end the regular season with a three-game set at Central Michigan University on May 7-8.
LEADING OFF
ABOUT THE FALCONS
Bowling Green currently has a record of 23-24 on the season ... the Falcons are 8-8 in MAC play, good for third place in the West Division ... BG dropped a pair of Wednesday (April 20) games at Western Michigan last week, before taking a non-conference game at Marshall, 5-3, two days later ... the Falcons' scheduled Saturday (April 23) twinbill at Ohio University was cancelled due to inclement weather and field conditions ... the Falcons have won 10 of the last 14 games, and BGSU is 23-15 after beginning the season with nine consecutive losses ... individually, junior Gina Rango is hitting a team-high .400, and also leads the Falcons in hits (52), runs batted in (30), triples (five), slugging percentage (.562), on-base pct. (.469) and stolen bases (14) ... sophomore Megan McPherson is hitting .299 on the season, while freshman Allison Vallas and junior Lindsay Heimrich are hitting .276 and .270, respectively ... Vallas has 27 RBI and a team-high 15 walks ... she has two homers to tie Rango for the team lead ... soph Jeanine Baca is batting .242 with team-high totals of 27 runs scored and 12 doubles ... in the circle, junior Liz Vrabel has a 13-10 record and a 2.08 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 5-5 on the year, with a save and a 1.87 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 194-169-2 (.534) ... Ross-Shaw is also the school's leader in MAC games, with a league mark of 94-64 (.595) ... 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).
THE OPPONENTS
Ohio State has an overall record of 22-14, and the Buckeyes are 4-6 in Big Ten Conference play ... OSU had weekend games at Northwestern and Michigan cancelled due to the weather ... the team has not played since sweeping Wright State on Tuesday (April 19) ... the Bucks, currently 4-3 in home games this season, are scheduled to host Western Michigan for a single game Tuesday (April 26), weather permitting ... as a team, the Buckeyes are hitting a whopping .331 ... senior Ashley Cutcliff is hitting .481 with four homers in 52 at-bats, while sophomore Jamee Juarez is batting .382 ... classmate Megan Schwab is hitting .377 with team-high totals of seven homers and 31 RBI ... in the circle, Juarez has started 29 of OSU's 36 games this season ... she is 17-10 with a 2.31 ERA, while junior Chelsea Baker has a 4-2 record and an ERA of 4.45 ... last year, the Buckeyes went 35-25 overall and 8-11 in the Big Ten, advancing to NCAA Regional play ... head coach Linda Kalafatis has a record of 285-206 in her ninth year in Columbus ... Kalafatis, formerly at Akron, is 558-321-2 in her 17th year as a collegiate head coach ... the school's athletics web site is ohiostatebuckeyes.com.
Buffalo enters the week with an overall mark of 15-23, and the Bulls are 8-5 in MAC play ... UB had a weekend home series with Miami scrapped due to the weather ... the Bulls take a five-game winning streak into a Wednesday twinbill vs. St. Bonaventure ... that streak includes a doubleheader sweep of Northern Illinois and a 2-0 win over Central Michigan ... senior Ann Magur paces the Buffalo bats with a .279 batting average, while freshman Laura Kor is hitting .262 with a team-high five homers ... in the circle, senior Stacey Evans has a 7-12 record and a team-low 2.36 ERA, while sophomore Sophie Barstad is 8-8 with an ERA of 2.46 ... a year ago, the Bulls finished 25-23 overall and had a MAC mark of 11-10 ... Marie Curran is 90-170 in her sixth season as a collegiate head coach, all with UB ... the school's athletics web site is www.buffalobulls.com.
THE SERIES
BGSU trails Ohio State, 17-10-2, in the all-time series between the teams, and the Falcons and Buckeyes have not met in four years ... in the last meetings, the teams split a doubleheader at Buckeye Field, with the hosts taking a 5-2 win in the opener and the Brown and Orange bouncing back for a 2-1, eight-inning victory in the nightcap (April 25, 2001) ... that win snapped a two-game losing streak in the series, and a BG six-game road slide vs. the Bucks.
The Falcons lead Buffalo, 7-3, in that series, but the Bulls have won three of the last five meetings ... last season, the teams split a doubleheader in New York, with the hosts taking a 1-0 decision, but the Falcons rebounding for a 4-0 win (April 15, 2004) ... UB's lone prior visit to BGSU came in the aforementioned 2002 series ... four seventh-inning Falcon errors led to a six-run inning as the Bulls took a 6-1 win in the opener, and UB followed with a 7-4 triumph in the nightcap (April 27, 2002) ... the next day, BG picked up a 10-7 win to avoid the sweep.
FALCON NOTES
FRIES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE BAG
The Falcons have outscored opponents in each of the first four innings this season, including a 16-7 margin in the second inning ... BG also has the advantage over opponents in the sixth inning, having scored 24 runs while allowing 15 ... but, foes have outscored the Falcons in both the fifth (14-27) and seventh (13-16) innings this season ... BG is .500 in one-run games (6-6), two-run games (4-4) and extra-inning contests (1-1) this spring ... BGSU pitching has gone 20 games without allowing more than seven hits ... junior Gina Rango has reached base (via hit, walk or hit-by-pitch) in each of the last 24 games, and in 36 of her 43 contests this spring ... Rango drew just four walks in her first 32 games of the season, but now has walked 10 times over the last 11 contests ... freshman Allison Vallas leads the team with 16 two-out RBI ... Natalie Armintrout leads the Falcons with four pinch hits on the season, and is hitting .444 (4-for-9) as a pinch-hitter ... Rango is batting an eye-popping .540 (27-for-50) with runners in scoring position ... sophomore Megan McPherson is hitting .323 as the Falcons' leadoff hitter, going 21-for-65 in 20 games at the leadoff spot ... Rango has hit .369 when batting third, and is hitting .457 when hitting cleanup ... Vallas is batting .309 in the number-five spot, with 16 RBI in 55 at-bats.
