Bowling Green State University Athletics
BGSU Heads to Waco for Compass Bank Invitational
March 01, 2006 | Softball
March 1, 2006
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BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University softball team, off to the best start in school history, will take part in arguably one of the toughest tournaments in program history ... the Falcons of eighth-year head coach Leigh Ross (6-0) will head to Waco, Texas, for the Compass Bank Invitational this Friday through Sunday (March 3-5) ... BGSU will play two games each against Mississippi State, Washington and the host school, Baylor.
Getterman Stadium - Waco, Texas (all times CST)
Friday, March 3 Bowling Green vs. Washington, 10:00 a.m. Washington vs. Mississippi State, 12:30 Bowling Green at Baylor, 3:00 Mississippi State at Baylor, 5:30Saturday, March 4 Bowling Green vs. Mississippi State, 10:00 a.m. Mississippi State vs. Washington, 12:30 Washington at Baylor, 3:00 Bowling Green at Baylor, 5:30
Sunday, March 5 Washington vs. Bowling Green, 9:00 a.m. Washington at Baylor, 11:00 a.m. Mississippi State vs. Bowling Green, 1:00 Mississippi State at Baylor, 3:00
GAMETRACKER/LIVE STATS
Live statistics for all 12 of this weekend's games will be available at Baylor's athletics web site, www.baylorbears.com ... live stats for all six of Bowling Green's games in the tournament will be available via Gametracker here at BGSUFalcons.com as well.
RADIO
Live audio for the games involving Baylor will be available at the host school's web site, www.baylorbears.com.
RANGO NAMED MAC PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Senior 3B Gina Rango has been named a Mid-American Conference Player of the Week, the league office announced Monday afternoon (Feb. 27) ... Rango earns the honor for the third time in her career ... the 2005 MAC Player of the Year, Rango picked up right where she left off ... a native of North Lima, Ohio, she hit .556 as the Falcons went a perfect 6-0 to win the Panera Bread Challenge in Chattanooga, Tenn. ... Rango's 10 hits in 18 at-bats included a pair of three-hit games and two two-hit games ... she had a slugging percentage of 1.222, with a double, a triple and three homers among her 10 hits.
TOUGH CROWD
Each of the Falcons' weekend opponents is ranked or receiving votes in the national polls ... Washington is 13th in the nation and Baylor is 18th in the ESPN.com/USA Softball poll, while Mississippi State is 27th (second team among 'also receiving votes').
BEST START EVER
The Falcons' six consecutive wins is by far the best start to a season in school history ... believe it or not, the previous record for most wins at the start of a season was two, set by the 1986 team and matched by the 2002 and 2004 Falcon clubs.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
The Falcons, as mentioned, have a record of 6-0 on the year after winning the Panera Bread Challenge in Chattanooga, Tenn., last weekend ... BGSU is hitting .272 as a team, while allowing opponents to hit just .186 ... senior Gina Rango, the 2005 MAC Player of the Year, is hitting .556 this season to date, with 10 hits in 18 at-bats ... Rango has a slugging percentage of 1.222, and has three homeruns and six runs batted in ... she leads the Falcons in 10 offensive categories ... junior Megan McPherson is batting .353 with a team-high three stolen bases ... in the circle, freshman Hayley Wiemer has a 1-0 record with one save and a team-low earned-run average of 0.55 ... senior Liz Vrabel, the reigning MAC Pitcher of the Year, has a BG-high three wins and an 0.95 ERA ... Vrabel has 21 strikeouts to pace BG in that category ... sophomore Emily Gouge is 2-0 with a 1.08 ERA ... head coach Leigh Ross welecomed back 14 letterwinners, including a total of seven positional starters, from last year's team that went 29-30 and finished with a mark of 12-10 in Mid-American Conference play.
ARMED AND DANGEROUS
BGSU pitchers had a combined earned-run average of 1.30 in the six games last weekend ... in her first collegiate weekend of action, freshman Hayley Wiemer went 1-0 with a save and an ERA of just 0.55 ... senior Liz Vrabel, the 2005 MAC Pitcher of the Year, is 3-0 with an ERA of only 0.95 and a team-leading 21 strikeouts in 2006 ... sophomore Emily Gouge is 2-0 with a 1.08 ERA and 15 Ks ... each of the three is allowing opponents to hit no better than .173.
FALCON NOTES
FIRST TIME EVER
Gina Rango, as mentioned, was named the MAC Player of the Year in 2005, while Liz Vrabel was the MAC Pitcher of the Year ... the 2006 Falcons are the first team in MAC history to return both the reigning league player and pitcher of the year.
BGSU PICKED TO WIN EAST DIVISION
Bowling Green was picked to win the MAC's East Division in 2006 ... the poll is a result of voting by the league's 12 head coaches ... Central Michigan was the coaches' choice to win the West Division and the MAC Tournament ... with the departure of Marshall from the conference, the Falcons were moved from the West to the East Division prior to the 2005-06 academic year.
NOTING THE OPPONENTS
Washington: The Huskies are 12-3 after winning their own Husky Fever Classic last weekend ... freshman Marnie Koziol is hitting a whopping .462, one of three starters batting over .430 ... in the circle, another frosh, Danielle Lawrie is 7-1 with a 1.38 ERA ... she threw a perfect game vs. Utah Valley State last weekend ... UW returned nine letterwinners, including seven starters, from last year ... that team went 35-22 overall and 10-11 in the Pacific-10 Conference, but won an NCAA Regional and advanced to the Super Regional round before losing to eventual national champion Michigan ... Heather Tarr is in her second year as head coach ... web: www.gohuskies.com.
Baylor: The Lady Bears took a 9-5 record into a Wednesday home DH vs. Texas State ... freshman Brette Reagan is hitting an incredible .517 on the season, with 13 extra-base hits, including five HR, and 17 RBI in 14 games ... junior Lisa Ferguson is 5-1 with an ERA of 1.44 ... nine letterwinners, including three positional starters, are back from last year's 51-14 team that advanced to an NCAA Super Regional ... head coach Glenn Moore is in his sixth year at BU ... web: www.Baylor Bears.com.
Mississippi State: The Bulldogs took a perfect 13-0 record into a Wednesday home date vs. Samford ... sophomore Hayle Guess is hitting .438, with 11 stolen bases in as many attempts ... sophomore Ragan Blake is 7-0 with five shutouts and an ERA of just 0.47 ... MSU returned 13 letterwinners, including seven starters, from last year's team which went 35-31 overall and advanced to an NCAA Regional ... head coach Jay Miller is in his fourth year at the school and his 24th season overall ... web: mstateathletics.com.
THE SERIES
BGSU leads Baylor, 2-0, in the all-time series between the teams ... the Falcons posted a 2-0 win in 1986, and a 11-1 victory in '88 ... both meetings were neutral-site affairs, the first in Louisiana and the second in Houston.
BG trails Washington, 2-0, in that series ... the Huskies posted an 8-1 win in 1995 and a 5-4 victory in 1997 ... the '95 meeting came in Sunnyvale, Calif., while the other matchup took place in Las Vegas.
BGSU has never met Mississippi State on the softball diamond.
HEAD COACH Leigh Ross
Leigh Ross, the winningest coach in school history, is in her eighth season as a collegiate head coach, all with the Falcons ... she currently has an overall record of 206-175-2 (.540) ... Ross 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, 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 is the only head coach in school history with three 30-win seasons, and continues to set new school marks with each win.
Ross 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, 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.
Kyle Jamieson is in his third season as an assistant coach with the Falcons, while Susan Sargent is in her first year on Ross's coaching staff.
