Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Head to MAC Tournament
May 10, 2005 | Softball
May 10, 2005
BGSU's MAC Tournament Release (25 exciting pages) in PDF Format
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BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University softball team, after earning a Mid-American Conference Tournament berth for the seventh time in the last eight years, heads to Akron, Ohio, to open league tourney play ... the Falcons of seventh-year head coach Leigh Ross-Shaw will begin play in the eight-team, double-elimination tournament Wednesday morning (May 11) ... BGSU, seeded sixth, will take on third-seeded Miami University in the first game of the day, with the first pitch set for 11:00 a.m. ... all tourney games will be played at Firestone Stadium.
Wednesday's second contest, between second-seeded Central Michigan University and seventh-seeded Eastern Michigan University, will begin at 1:30 p.m. ... the winner of the BGSU-Miami game will advance to face the CMU-EMU victor on Thursday (May 12) at 5:00 p.m. ... the losing teams from those two Wednesday games will meet in an elimination game on Thursday at 11:00 a.m. ... the complete MAC Tournament bracket follows ...
Firestone Stadium; Akron, Ohio
Wednesday, May 11Gm 1 - #3 Miami vs. #6 Bowling Green, 11 a.m. Gm 2 - #2 Central Michigan vs. #7 Eastern Michigan, 1:30 p.m. Gm 3 - #4 Western Michigan vs. #5 Buffalo, 5 p.m. Gm 4 - #1 Marshall vs. #8 Kent State, 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, May 12 Gm 5 - Miami/BGSU loser vs. CMU/EMU loser, 11 a.m. Gm 6 - WMU/UB loser vs. Marshall/KSU loser, 1:30 p.m. Gm 7 - Miami/BGSU winner vs. CMU/EMU winner, 5 p.m. Gm 8 - WMU/UB winner vs. Marshall/KSU winner, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, May 13 Gm 9 - Gm 5 winner vs. Gm 8 loser, 11 a.m. Gm 10 - Gm 6 winner vs. Gm 7 loser, 1:30 p.m. Gm 11 - Gm 7 winner vs. Gm 9 winner, 5 p.m. Gm 12 - Gm 8 winner vs. Gm 10 winner, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, May 14 Gm 13 (if necessary) - Gm 11 participants, 10 a.m. Gm 14 (if necessary) - Gm 12 participants, 12:30 p.m. Gm 15 - Gm 11/13 winner vs. Gm 12/14 winner, 3 p.m.
BGSU IN THE MAC TOURNAMENT
The Falcons are appearing in the MAC Tournament for the third consecutive season, the seventh time in the last eight years, and for the 10th time in school history ... this year marks the 15th MAC Tournament ... a league tourney was held each year from 1982-86 before a hiatus of nearly a decade (the tournament resumed in 1996, but that year's tourney was suspended in the third game due to inclement weather) ... Bowling Green has compiled an all-time MAC tourney mark of 14-17, including a 5-1 record and a MAC Tournament championship last season, the school's first ... BGSU has gone 1-2 on six of the nine occasions the Falcons have qualified ... BGSU was 1-2 in the first four trips, 0-2 in 1999 and 3-2 in 2000 ... BG posted a 1-2 mark at the 2001 tourney, and again won one of three games in 2003 ... prior to last season, the runner-up finish in 2000 was the Falcons' best placing ever in the MAC Tournament ... the Falcons participated in the league tourney in 1982, 1985 and 1986, prior to the four-year run from 1998-2001 ... in three of the team's first four trips, BG won the first game before losing the next two.
2004-2005 SIMILARITIES (or, 'Lincoln', 'Kennedy', 'Falcons' and 'Tourney' all have seven letters)
The Falcons are the defending MAC Tournament champions, having won the first league tourney crown in school history in 2004 ... there are several similarities between last year's team and this season's BG squad ...
WHAT KATHY MUFFENBIER SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE FALCONS
Bowling Green currently has a record of 27-28 on the season ... the Falcons finished with a mark of 12-10 in MAC play, good for a third-place finish in the West Division ... as mentioned earlier, the Falcons closed the regular season by taking one of three games at Central Michigan ... the Chippewas swept a Saturday (May 7) doubleheader, with a 3-0 decision in the opener and a 3-2, eight-inning win in the nightcap ... but, BGSU bounced back for a 4-2 victory in Sunday's (May 8) game ... individually, the Falcons are led by a pair of All-MAC First-Team selections, juniors Gina Rango and Liz Vrabel ... Rango is hitting a team-high .368, and also leads the Falcons in hits (56), triples (five), slugging percentage (.513) and on-base pct. (.439) ... she is tied for the team lead in homeruns (two), runs batted in (31), walks (16) and stolen bases (15) ... sophomore Megan McPherson, a second-team all-league selection, is hitting .302 on the season, and is tied with Rango for the team's stolen-base lead ... freshman Allison Vallas, also an all-league second-team pick, and junior Lindsay Heimrich are hitting .283 and .256, respectively ... Vallas has two homers, 31 RBI and 16 walks, tying Rango for the BG lead in all three categories ... soph Jeanine Baca is batting .239 with team-high totals of 30 runs scored and 12 doubles ... in the circle, Vrabel has a 15-13 record, a 1.92 ERA and a school-record total of 207 strikeouts ... senior Kristen Anderson is 1-1 with an ERA of just 0.99 in 28 1/3 innings of work, while freshman Emily Gouge is 6-6 on the year, with two saves and a 2.09 ERA ... Heimrich picked up the win at CMU Sunday, and is now 5-8 with a 2.72 ERA this spring.
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 198-173-2 (.534) ... Ross-Shaw is also the school's leader in MAC games, with a league mark of 98-66 (.598) ... 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.
THE REST OF THE FIELD
Miami, BGSU's first MAC Tournament opponent, enters the league tourney with an overall record of 30-24 ... the RedHawks finished MAC play with a 13-8 mark, good for second place in the East Division and the third seed for the tourney ... MU is looking to snap a four-game losing streak, including a pair of non-conference losses at Michigan State Sunday (May 8) ... individually, Jackie Poggendorf tops the team in both hitting and pitching ... she is batting .331 with a team-high 15 doubles ... in the circle, Poggendorf is 18-14 with a 2.15 ERA ... Courtney Salmon has a 12-10 mark and an ERA of 2.18 ... the two have combined for 385 strikeouts on the year ... Angie Jacobs has a record of 147-209-1 in her seventh season as a collegiate head coach, all in Oxford ... the school's athletics web site is www.MURedHawks.com.
Marshall brings a 35-18 record into the MAC Tournament ... the Thundering Herd went 20-4 in MAC games to win the East Division and earn the number-one seed for the tourney ... MU won 11 of the team's last 12 MAC games, with the lone loss in that stretch coming Saturday at Kent State ... the Herd won the final two games of that weekend series ... Rachel Folden leads the team with a .415 batting average and 54 RBI ... she has eight homers on the year ... Amanda Williams is batting .345 with 43 runs scored ... Randi Nielson paces the MU pitchers, with a 19-7 mark and a 2.19 ERA ... Abigail Harter is 13-9 with a 2.91 ERA ... Shonda Stanton is in her sixth season with the Herd, and her seventh year as a collegiate head coach ... she has records of 185-139 in Huntington and 210-166 overall ... the school's athletics web site is www.herdzone.com.
Central Michigan has an overall record of 26-14, and the Chippewas concluded MAC play with a 16-6 mark to win the West Division and garner the second seed ... CMU, of course, faced BGSU last weekend, winning two of the three games in Mount Pleasant ... Amy Hudson leads the team with a .366 batting average and 20 RBI, while Christin Sobeck is hitting .321 ... Karen Hohs is batting .271 and has 19 stolen bases on the year ... in the circle, Jessica Garvin has an 11-9 record and a team-low ERA of 1.85, while Jill DeRoche is 13-2 with a 2.69 ERA ... DeRoche was a perfect 11-0 in MAC play ... last year, the Chippewas went 32-19 overall and 21-3 in MAC action ... the 2004 team won the West Division and became the first-ever MAC team to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA Regionals ... Margo Jonker is in her 26th season as a head coach, all in Mount Pleasant, and has a record of 890-480-5 ... the school's athletics web site is www.cmuchippewas.com.
Western Michigan has an overall record of 21-25, and the Broncos went 14-9 in MAC play, placing second in the West and earning the fourth seed for the tourney ... last weekend, the Broncos dropped a pair of games at Eastern Michigan before winning the final game in Ypsilanti ... Katie Niemi is hitting .333 on the year, while Amy Fleming is batting .248 ... Tricia VanDerSlik has a 10-15 record in the circle, with a 2.21 ERA .... Kyla Sullivan is 7-8 with a 2.91 ERA ... head coach Kathy Leitke is in her fifth year with the Broncos ... the school's athletics web site is www.wmubroncos.com.
Buffalo is 21-26 overall, and the Bulls finished 11-8 in MAC play to place third in the East Division and earn the fifth seed ... UB is making the first MAC Tournament appearance in school history ... the Bulls are riding a four-game winning streak, including a three-game sweep of Ohio last weekend ... UB has won 11 of the last 14 games, with the only three losses in that span coming to BGSU ... Laura Kor is hitting .261 with team-high totals of six homers and 15 RBI ... Lacy Schneider and Marcy Hansen are batting .245 and .241, respectively ... Sophie Barstad has a 10-10 record and a 2.15 ERA in the circle, while Stacey Evans is 11-13 with a 2.39 ERA ... head coach Marie Curran is in her sixth season with the Bulls ... the school's athletics web site is www.buffalobulls.com.
Eastern Michigan is 17-22 overall, and the Eagles finished 11-12 in MAC action ... EMU placed fourth in the West Division and earned the seventh seed ... last weekend, Eastern captured two of three games from visiting Western Michigan ... Liz Flack and Lauren Clark are hitting .324 and .316, respectively ... Flack has nine homers and a .657 slugging pct., while Clark leads the Eagles with 20 RBI ... Nikki Denman has a team-best 1.87 ERA, while Aimee Woodrum is 6-11 with a 2.62 ERA on the year ... Karen Baird is 42-90 in her third year as a collegiate head coach, all in Ypsilanti ... the school's athletics web site is www.emich.edu/goeagles.
Kent State is the tournament's eighth seed ... the Golden Flashes are 25-25 overall, and finished fourth in the East with a 10-11 MAC ledger ... last weekend, KSU went 1-2 in a weekend series vs. visiting Marshall ... the two losses snapped a four-game win streak ... Abby Molnar and Jodi Stevens are hitting .309 and .307, respectively, while Ashley Ball is batting .306 ... five other players are batting .272 or higher ... Keir McEachern is 7-2 in the circle, with a team-low 2.17 ERA, while Brittney Robinson is 10-13 with a 2.47 ERA and 189 strikeouts ... Karen Linder is in her ninth season as the school's head coach ... the school's athletics web site is www.kentstatesports.com.
THE SERIES
BGSU holds a 44-33 lead over Miami in the all-time series between the teams, but the RedHawks have captured all three of this season's meetings to date ... MU won a 3-1 decision on March 11 at the Eller Media Stadium Classic in Las Vegas, Nev., then came to BG and swept a doubleheader (4-0, 1-0) on April 6 ... the Falcons won both of the prior MAC Tournament meetings, both coming on the final day last year (May 16, 2004) ... BG captured 1-0 and 4-3 decisions to take the MAC Tournament title ... the teams are tied, 4-4, in neutral-site meetings.
The Falcons lead the series with Marshall, 18-4, and BG won the lone meeting this season to date ... the visiting Falcons won a 5-3 decision in Huntington in a non-conference meeting on April 22 ... the teams have split two prior MAC Tournament games, with BG winning a 4-3 game in 1999, and the Thundering Herd capturing a 2-1 win two years ago at Firestone (May 8, 2003) ... the Falcons are 2-1 vs. Marshall all-time in neutral-site games.
Central Michigan holds a commanding 59-14 lead over the Falcons, and the Chippewas took two of last weekend's three games ... the teams have split the last six overall meetings since Central's epic 30-game series winning streak over the Brown and Orange ... the Chippewas hold a 6-1 lead in MAC Tournament meetings, but BG's lone league tourney win over CMU came last year, a 3-0 win on May 14, 2004 ... Central is 8-1 against the Falcons in games at a neutral site.
Western Michigan leads BGSU, 37-22, and the Broncos swept the Falcons in this season's doubleheader (April 20), by scores of 3-2 and 3-1 ... WMU holds a 2-1 lead in MAC Tournament meetings, and the teams split a pair of games at last year's league tourney ... Western won the opener, 3-0 (May 13, 2004), before the Falcons took an 8-6 win two days later .. those mark the only two neutral-site meetings in series history.
The Falcons are 10-3 all-time vs. Buffalo, and BGSU swept a three-game home series from the Bulls two weeks ago ... the Falcons took an eight-inning, 1-0 decision and an 8-0, five-inning game on April 30, then opened the month of May with a 2-1 win ... the Falcons are 2-0 vs. the Bulls in neutral-site games, but the teams have never met in the MAC Tournament.
BGSU leads Eastern Michigan, 41-30, in that series, and the Falcons won two of three games vs. the Eagles this year ... host BGSU swept an April 16 doubleheader, by scores of 4-1 and 8-0 (five innings), but the visitors bounced back for a 2-0 win over the Falcons the next day ... EMU has won all four previous neutral-site meetings over the Falcons, including a 1-0 win in the lone previous MAC Tournament matchup, in DeKalb, Ill., on May 13, 1999.
Kent State leads the Falcons, 44-38-1, in that series ... KSU is the only team in the MAC Tournament field that BGSU did not play this season ... the teams' last meeting came in the 2004 MAC Tournament, a 6-0 BG win last May 14 ... the Golden Flashes are 2-1 against BG in league tourney meetings, and the teams are 3-3 in neutral-site games.
FALCONS VS. THE FIELD IN 2005
This season, the Falcons have posted an aggregate record of 7-8 vs. the other teams in the MAC Tournament field ... BGSU went 3-5 against West Division teams and 4-3 against the East Division squads ... the Falcons swept a three-game series vs. Buffalo, and took two out of three games against Eastern Michigan ... BGSU went 1-2 at Central Michigan last weekend, and went 0-2 vs. Western Michigan and 0-3 against Miami ... the Falcons were 1-0 against Marshall ... the 15 games include one non-conference contest each vs. the RedHawks and Thundering Herd.
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.
WELL THEN, THIS WOULD BE MORE, WOULDN'T IT?
The 2005 Falcons have surpassed the '04 team's totals in several hitting categories ... BGSU has stolen 51 bases this season, nearly double last season's total (29) ... Falcon batters have been hit by pitches on 29 occasions this year, a school record and 23 more than last year's team ... BG's total of 13 triples is more than double the 2004 squad's total of six ... in the circle, Falcon pitchers have struck out 337 batters last year, just nine away from last season's school record total of 346.
RANGO'S RAMPAGE
Gina Rango, just a junior, has already placed her name at the top of several BGSU career records lists ... Rango ranks first in BGSU history in homeruns (16), runs batted in (100), batting average (.368) and slugging pct. (.556) ... she is second on the career total bases list , with 287, and ranks fourth in both hits (190) and doubles (37), fifth in runs scored (86) and eighth in games started (168) ... Rango is one walk and one stolen base away from entering the school's career top-10 in each of those categories.
VRABEL'S RECORD COLLECTION
Another Falcon junior, Liz Vrabel, is at or near the top of numerous BGSU career records lists ... Vrabel already holds the school record for career strikeouts, with 545, and has 6.99 strikeouts per seven innings places her more than two ahead of the second-place pitcher on that list ... Vrabel - again, just a junior - ranks third in career wins (47) and earned-run average (1.50), fourth in complete games (58), innings pitched (545 2/3) and shutouts (17), fifth in games started (76) and sixth in appearances (102).
RANGO AND VRABEL IN THE MAC
Juniors Gina Rango and Liz Vrabel certainly made their presence felt around the MAC this season ... in MAC games only, Vrabel led the entire league in strikeouts (122), strikeouts per seven innings (9.35), complete games (13), opponent batting average (.167) and shutouts (4 - tied for league lead) ... she ranked third in ERA (1.15) and tied for third in wins (9) ... Rango was second in the league in on-base pct. (.465) and tied for second on walks ... she deadlocked for third in stolen bases and tied for fourth in RBI ... Rango was sixth in the league in batting ... in all games, Rango is third in the league in batting average, while Vrabel is fourth in ERA ... Rango leads the league in triples and is third in OBP, fourth in hits and tied for fifth in RBI ... she is tied for seventh in steals, ranks eighth in total bases and 10th in slugging ... Vrabel is ranked among the league's top 10 in every pitching category except saves.
POTENTIAL CLASH O' THE TITANS
Wednesday morning's game potentially could feature two of the top-eight strikeout pitchers in Mid-American Conference history ... Miami senior Jackie Piggendorf enters the MAC Tournament as the RedHawks' career leader in strikeouts, and is ranked fifth in league history with 653 ... BGSU's Liz Vrabel, a junior, already holds her school's career record, and has moved into a tie for seventh place on the MAC list, with 545 ... the MAC's top-10 list is on page 20.
FALCON NOTES
FRIES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE BAG *
Last weekend's series at Central Michigan marked BGSU's final regular-season games as a member of the West Division ... the Falcons will be returning to the East Division for the 2005-06 academic year ... the MAC went to divisional play for the 1997-98 year, and BG played five seasons (1998-2002) in the East Division before moving to the West prior to the 2002-03 academic year ... Falcon pitchers currently lead the MAC in earned-run average, at 2.05 ... BGSU also paced the league in that category in conference games only, with an ERA of just 1.44 ... the Falcons allowed a total of just 38 runs in MAC play, the fewest in the league ... BG was third in the league in hitting in MAC games, with a .235 average, and led the conference in fielding, at .972 ... in all games, BG is seventh in batting (.238) and second in fielding (.966) ... the Falcons have outscored the opponents in five of the seven innings this season (innings one through four as well as the sixth) ... junior Gina Rango leads the Falcons with 15 multiple-hit games, while sophomore Megan McPherson has 13 and freshman Allison Vallas 10 ... Rango has nine multi-RBI games and Vallas eight in 2005 ... junior Liz Vrabel set both the BGSU single-season and career records for strikeouts in the same week ... on April 27 at Ohio State, Vrabel broke the career mark of 505, set by Jennifer Wolf (1993-97) ... three days later (April 30), she fanned 13 Buffalo hitters to set the seasonal mark ... BGSU finished the home portion of the schedule with a 10-5 record ... Vallas led the Falcons with a .395 batting average, 17 RBI and a .674 slugging percentage at home ... overall, Vallas leads the team with 19 two-out RBI this season to date.
* phrase shamelessly stolen from Nate Ewell, the former hockey SID at Michigan State who is now with insidecollegehockey.com
