Falcons Travel to Central to Close Regular Season

May 4, 2005

BGSU Release & Stats (12 pages) in PDF Format
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BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University softball team, having clinched a berth in the 2005 Mid-American Conference Tournament, concludes the regular season this weekend ... the Falcons of seventh-year head coach Leigh Ross-Shaw will take on MAC West Division-leading Central Michigan University in a three-game series ... the Falcons and Chippewas are slated to play a Saturday (May 7) doubleheader and a Sunday (May 8) single game, with the first pitch at 1:00 p.m. each day at the CMU Softball Complex ... then, the Falcons, Chippewas and six other schools will converge on Akron for the MAC Tournament ... the tourney is slated to run from May 11-14 at Firestone Stadium in the Rubber City.

LEADING OFF

This weekend's series marks 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.

The Falcons enter the regular season's final weekend having clinched a berth in the MAC Tournament, and BGSU still has a chance -- albeit a slim one -- to tie for the West Division title ... to do so, the Falcons would need a three-game sweep of Central Michigan, along with at least two Western Michigan losses ... WMU plays three games at Eastern Michigan this weekend.

If the regular season ended today, the Falcons would be the fifth seed for the MAC Tournament ... it is mathematically possible for BG to finish as high as the number-two seed or as low as the eighth seed for the league tourney.

BGSU will participate in the MAC Tournament for the third consecutive season and the seventh time in the last eight years.

Junior Liz Vrabel set both the BGSU single-season and career records for strikeouts last week ... on Wednesday (April 27) at Ohio State, Vrabel broke the career mark of 505, set by Jennifer Wolf (1993-97) ... three days later, she fanned 13 Buffalo hitters in the Falcons' opening-game win to set the seasonal mark ... after another 10 strikeouts vs. the Bulls the next day, Vrabel now has 194 strikeouts on the season and 532 in her career ... the old season mark of 180 was set by Garrett Gholston in 1999.

Gina Rango, like Vrabel just a junior, already owns the BGSU career records for both homers and runs batted in ... on Sunday (May 1), Rango doubled home the Falcons' first run in a 2-1 win over Buffalo ... that RBI gives her an even 100 for her career to date.

The Falcons snapped a lengthy losing streak vs. Central Michigan last year, but it has been quite a while since BGSU has won a road game vs. the Chippewas ... CMU has won 16 consecutive games vs. the Falcons in Mount Pleasant, with BG's last road win over Central coming on April 8, 1994.

VALLAS NAMED MAC PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Freshman Allison Vallas has been named a MAC Player of the Week, the league office announced Monday (May 2) ... Vallas hit a team-high .333 in last week's five games, including a BG-best .444 batting average (4-for-9) in the Falcons' three-game sweep of Buffalo ... she had walk-off hits in both ends of Saturday's (April 30) doubleheader, driving in Kari Steigerwald with the game's lone run in a 1-0, eight-inning win in the opener, then capping the second game with a two-run double in the fifth inning, to give BG an eight-run lead and a run-rule victory ... the next day, Vallas had a hit and scored what would prove to be the winning run in a 2-1 triumph.

ABOUT THE FALCONS
Bowling Green currently has a record of 26-26 on the season ... the Falcons are 11-8 in MAC play, good for third place in the West Division ... BG dropped a pair of Wednesday (April 27) games at Ohio State last week, before sweeping a three-game weekend series from visiting Buffalo ... the Falcons captured a pair of shutouts, 1-0 in eight innings and 8-0 in five innings, on Saturday (April 30), before opening the month of May with a 2-1 win Sunday (May 1) ... individually, junior Gina Rango is hitting a team-high .368, and also leads the Falcons in hits (53), runs batted in (31), triples (five), slugging percentage (.521), on-base pct. (.435) and stolen bases (14 - tied for team lead) ... sophomore Megan McPherson is hitting .301 on the season, and is tied with Rango for the team's stolen-base lead, with 14 ... freshman Allison Vallas and junior Lindsay Heimrich are hitting .282 and .259, respectively ... Vallas has 30 RBI and a team-high 16 walks, and also has two homers to tie Rango for the BG lead ... soph Jeanine Baca is batting .246 with team-high totals of 29 runs scored and 12 doubles ... in the circle, junior Liz Vrabel has a 15-11 record, a 1.97 ERA and a school-record 194 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 a save and a 2.06 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 197-171-2 (.535) ... Ross-Shaw is also the school's leader in MAC games, with a league mark of 97-64 (.602) ... 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 OPPONENT
Central Michigan has an overall record of 24-13, and the Chippewas lead the MAC's West Division with a league mark of 14-5 ... CMU took two of three games at Northern Illinois last weekend ... from March 30-April 16, Central went 14-1, with wins over #1 Michigan and Michigan State ... the lone loss in that time came to U-M in the second half of that DH ... but, CMU is 4-5 in the nine games since that time ... individually, freshman Amy Hudson leads the team with a .365 batting average and 19 RBI, while senior Christin Sobeck is hitting .316 with 16 RBI ... junior Karen Hohs is batting .276 and has 18 stolen bases on the year ... in the circle, junior Jessica Garvin has an 11-8 record and a team-low ERA of 1.80, while sophomore Jill DeRoche is 11-2 with a 3.01 ERA ... DeRoche is a perfect 9-0 in MAC play to date ... 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 888-479-5 ... the school's athletics web site is www.cmuchippewas.com.

THE SERIES
Central Michigan holds a commanding 57-13 lead over the Falcons in the all-time series between the teams, but the teams split four games last season ... CMU came to BG and won two of three games on the final weekend of the regular season ... the visitors opened the series with a 3-1 win over the Falcons (May 8, 2004), but the Brown and Orange rebounded with a 4-3 victory in the nightcap of that doubleheader ... that BG win broke a 30-game CMU series winning streak, dating to the 1994 season ... then, Central captured the next day's (May 9, 2004) game by a 3-2 score ... after going 10 years without beating the Chippewas, the Falcons downed Central twice in six days, after posting a 3-0 win over CMU in the MAC Tournament (May 14) ... BGSU is 6-25 in road games vs. the Chippewas, however, and Central has downed the Falcons 16-straight times at the CMU Softball Complex, since a 2-1 BG victory on April 8, 1994.

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.

THIS WOULD BE MORE, WOULDN'T IT?
The 2005 Falcons have surpassed the '04 team's totals in several hitting categories ... BGSU has stolen 48 bases this season, nearly 20 more than last year (29) ... Falcon batters have been hit by pitches on 26 occasions this year, a school record and 20 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 319 batters last year, just 27 away from last season's school record total of 346.

FALCON NOTES

Falcon head coach Leigh Ross-Shaw needs three more victories to reach 200 wins for her career ... Ross-Shaw is currently 197-171-2 in her seventh season ... she has 61 more wins than the second-place coach on the BG list.

Ross-Shaw is three wins away from another milestone ... she needs three MAC victories for 100 in her career ... Ross-Shaw currently has a mark of 97-64 in league regular-season games.

The Falcons' first victory of the Buffalo series was the 300th league victory in school history ... according to the MAC's weekly release, only this weekend's opponent, Central Michigan, currently owns more conference wins ... BGSU is now 302-260-1 all-time in MAC games.

Junior Gina Rango, as mentioned earlier, is the BGSU career leader in runs batted in, and now has an even 100 ... Rango also tops the school career charts in homers (16), batting average (.368) and slugging percentage (.559) ... she is second in BG annals with 284 total bases, and is fourth in doubles (37), tied for fourth in hits (187) and deadlocked for fifth in runs scored (85).

With two wins vs. Buffalo last weekend, junior Liz Vrabel now has 47 victories at BGSU, moving into third on that school career list ... she has 6.92 strikeouts per seven innings in her BG tenure, the school record by a wide margin ... as mentioned earlier, Vrabel is now the career record-holder in strikeouts, with 532 ... she ranks third in ERA (1.51) and is fourth in both complete games (57) and shutouts (17) ... Vrabel - again, just a junior - is ranked seventh or higher on no fewer than 10 BGSU career categories.

In Saturday's (April 30) second game vs. UB, freshman Emily Gouge threw her first collegiate one-hitter ... she singlehandedly outhit the Bulls, going 2-for-3 at the plate ... the hits were her second and third of her career ... the first hit was a two-run double, for her first two RBI as a Falcon.

FRIES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE BAG *
Junior Liz Vrabel had a 1.11 ERA last week ... in MAC games, she was 2-0 with an ERA of just 0.47 ... in 19 innings of work on the week, Vrabel struck out 28 batters while issuing just one walk ... that 'walk' came on a full-count pitch that was fouled off by the batter, but an umpire called an illegal pitch ... Vrabel has struck out 109 batters in just 84 innings of work in league play ... freshman Allison Vallas had walk-off hits in each end of Saturday's (April 30) Buffalo DH ... Vallas singled to plate sophomore Kari Steigerwald with the lone run of the first game in the eighth inning ... then, she doubled to score two runs and give BG an eight-run lead in the bottom of the fifth of the nightcap, for a run-rule victory ... 16 of the 17 players on the BGSU roster saw action in the opening game at Ohio State (April 27) ... the 17th, freshman Emily Gouge, was on deck when the game ended ... 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 ... the Falcons have outscored opponents in five of the seven innings this season (innings one through four as well as the sixth) ... BG is 8-6 in one-run games and 2-1 in extra-inning contests this spring ... Vrabel had 13 strikeouts in Saturday's (April 30) opener vs. Buffalo, just one away from matching her career high ... she had 14 strikeouts in a 12-inning win over Western Michigan last season (April 9, 2004), and struck out 14 in a seven-inning contest at Northern Illinois earlier this year (April 3).

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

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