Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
Chattanooga
Falcons Win a Wild One, 3-2 Over Chattanooga
February 24, 2006 | Softball
Feb. 24, 2006
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - The Bowling Green State University softball team used some late-game heroics to capture a 3-2 win over the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Friday (Feb. 24). The nine-inning win was the Falcons' second game at UTC's Panera Bread Challenge.
Junior Jeanine Baca had two hits and scored two runs, and the centerfielder also threw out a UTC runner at the plate to end the game.
The Brown and Orange took a 1-0 lead into the seventh inning, only to see the host Lady Mocs tie the score and force extra innings. BGSU senior Liz Vrabel escaped a bases-loaded, no-outs jam in the bottom of the eighth, then scored a run in the top of the ninth. BG plated two ninth-inning runs, and held off a UTC comeback bid in the bottom of the inning.
Baca scored the game's first run in the top of the fifth inning. She led off with a single, and took second on classmate Megan McPherson's sacrifice bunt. Senior Gina Rango's infield single sent Baca to third, and she would score on a sacrifice fly by freshman Hayley Wiemer.
Wiemer, the Falcons' starting pitcher, threw six innings of three-hit shutout ball. But, the host school would plate the tying run with two outs in the bottom of the seventh.
In that inning, a single, a passed ball and a sac bunt put a runner at third with no outs against senior reliever Lindsay Heimrich. Vrabel came on in relief of Heimrich, and UTC got a two-out line-drive to right for a sac fly and the game's tying run.
In the eighth, with the international tiebreaker rule in effect, Heimrich was placed on second base to start the inning. Sophomore Dawnjene DeLong's sac bunt moved her to third, but a groundout and a strikeout ended the threat.
In the bottom of the frame, a single sent the UTC runner to third, and an intentional walk loaded the bases with no outs. But, Vrabel got a strikeout, a foul pop and another strikeout to keep the Falcons alive.
Vrabel, the last out of the previous inning, was placed on second to start the BG ninth, and she promptly came home on Baca's double to the wall. Baca took third on an error on the play, and would score on Rango's one-out single.
In the bottom of the inning, a passed ball sent the UTC runner to third, but Vrabel got a popup and a called strikeout. But, a walk and a single made it a 3-2 game with runners at first and second. The next batter singled to center, but Baca's throw to the plate was right on the money, and senior catcher Abby Habicht applied the tag for the game's final out.
Vrabel picked up the win with two-and-two-thirds innings of relief. She allowed only one run, unearned, on three hits to pick up her second win of the day.
Both Vrabel and Wiemer struck out four batters in the game.
At the plate, Baca and Rango each had two hits, with Baca scoring a pair of runs. McPherson and Habicht had the other BG hits. The Lady Mocs held a 7-6 advantage in the hits department.
The Falcons are back in action Saturday (Feb. 25), with two more games at the Panera Bread Challenge. BGSU is 2-0 on the young season, after beginning the 2005 campaign with nine consecutive losses.
