Bowling Green State University Athletics
BGSU to Open Home Schedule Saturday
March 23, 2006 | Softball
March 23, 2006
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BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University softball team, having played in four tournaments in as many weekends, returns north to open the home portion of the 2006 schedule ... the Falcons of eighth-year head coach Leigh Ross (15-8) will face the University of Detroit Mercy in a Saturday (March 25) doubleheader ... first pitch of the first game is scheduled for noon at the BGSU Softball Field.
FALCONS WIN SPEEDLINE INVITATIONAL
The Falcons are coming off a championship at the three-day, 16-team USF Speedline Invitational in Tampa, Fla., last weekend (March 17-19) ... BGSU outscored opponents by a combined 26-5 in the six games ... the Falcons dropped a narrow 1-0 decision to Troy, then reeled off five consecutive victories, over Towson (10-0), Winthrop (2-0), Purdue (6-0), Fordham (3-0) and Florida International (5-4) ... the Speedline Invitational title was the second tourney crown for the Falcons this season ... BG won the Panera Bread Challenge in Chattanooga, Tenn., with a 6-0 record in the season's opening weekend (Feb. 24-26).
VRABEL SETS BGSU CAREER WINS RECORD
Senior Liz Vrabel has become the BGSU career leader in career wins ... with a pair of victories on Sunday (March 19), Vrabel now has 57 wins in her BG tenure ... a native of Allison Park, Pa., she fired a shutout against Fordham on Sunday morning in the Speedline Invitational semifinals, then picked up the win in relief in the championship game vs. FIU ... Vrabel passed Jennifer Wolf (56 wins from 1993-97) to take over the top spot on the BGSU career wins list.
VRABEL NAMED MAC PITCHER OF THE WEEK
Senior Liz Vrabel has been named the MAC Pitcher of the Week, the league office announced Monday afternoon (March 20) ... Vrabel had a record of 3-0 and an ERA of just 0.40 as the Falcons won the Speedline Invitational in Tampa, Fla., last weekend ... she surrendered only one run and six hits in 17 2/3 innings, allowing opponents to hit just .105 against her ... Vrabel threw a three-hit shutout against Winthrop, striking out 12 batters, and allowed only two hits in a complete-game shutout win over Fordham ... then, she came on to pitch three-and-two-thirds innings of one-run, one-hit relief in a championship-game win over Florida International ... Vrabel earned the MAC weekly honor for the first time this season and the seventh in her Falcon career.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
The Falcons enter the Detroit doubleheader with a record of 15-8 on the season ... BGSU has participated in four tournaments, winning two of them ... the most recent tourney title, as mentioned, came at last weekend's USF Speedline Invitational ... BG went 6-0 at the Panera Bread Challenge in Chattanooga, Tenn., in the season's opening weekend, then posted a 1-5 record at the Compass Bank Invitational in Waco, Texas, one week later ... the Compass Bank Invite pitted BGSU against teams either ranked or receiving votes in the national polls in all six games ... the Falcons picked up a win vs. #13/15 Washington in that tourney ... the next weekend (March 10-12), BG went 3-2 at the Worth Classic, hosted by Florida Atlantic ... the Falcons downed Seton Hall, Campbell and Rutgers before losing to host FAU and to SHU in the rematch between the teams ... BGSU is hitting .245 as a team, while allowing opponents to hit just .198 ... senior Gina Rango, the 2005 MAC Player of the Year, is hitting .397 this season to date ... Rango has a slugging percentage of .676, and has four homeruns and 14 runs batted in ... she leads the Falcons in seven offensive categories ... freshman Desiree Miller is hitting .314, while junior Jeanine Baca is batting .311 with a team-high 15 runs scored ... both Miller and Baca have 11 RBI, tied for second behind Rango ... sophomore Allison Vallas is batting .279 with 10 RBI ... junior Lauren Hoffman has a .353 average in 17 at-bats this year ... in the circle, sophomore Emily Gouge has a team-low 1.09 earned-run average and a record of 3-0, while freshman Hayley Wiemer is 4-4 with a 1.62 ERA ... senior Liz Vrabel, the reigning MAC Pitcher of the Year, has a BG-high eight wins (8-4) and a 2.01 ERA ... Vrabel has 79 strikeouts to pace BG in that category, and has allowed opponents to hit just .170 against her ... Wiemer has an opponent batting average of only .200 ... head coach Leigh Ross welcomed back 14 letterwinners, including a total of seven positional starters, from last year's team that went 29-30 and finished with a Mid-American Conference mark of 12-10.
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 OPPONENT
Detroit has a record of 2-8 on the season to date ... the Titans began the season with six games in Hawai'i, and played four games at the Best Western Catamount Classic in Cullowee, N.C., last weekend ... the team's wins have come against Santa Barbara and Alabama A&M ... freshman Jacqueline Nortman is hitting .333 to lead the team, while junior Adrienne Baran is 1-3 in the circle, with an earned run average of 5.00 ... UDM went 18-28 overall last year, posting a Horizon League mark of 7-10 ... Bob Wilkerson is in his 10th season as the head coach of the Titans ... web: www.detroittitans.com.
THE SERIES
BGSU leads Detroit, 27-7, in the all-time series between the teams, and the Falcons have won the last four meetings ... BG swept a home doubleheader last year (March 29, 2005) by scores of 4-3 and 6-3 ... the Falcons have won 15 of the last 17 meetings ... the teams have met in a twinbill every year since 1995.
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 215-183-2 (.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 win 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.
THIS SEEMS BETTER
BGSU's 15-8 record puts the 2006 Falcons far ahead of the pace of the '05 team ... last year, the Falcons were just 7-16 through 23 games, and had been outscored by a 71-43 count ... this year's team has scored 83 runs and allowed just 48 to date.
FASCINATING FALCON FACTS
Sunday's game vs. Florida International was the 400th in the head-coaching tenure of Leigh Ross ... the Falcons have outscored opponents, 16-0, in the first inning this year ... BGSU has scored first in 20 of this season's 23 games ... the Falcons have outscored foes in the second (7-2), fourth (9-3) fifth (15-8) and sixth (12-7) innings as well ... BG is 13-1 when scoring at least three runs in a game ... junior Jeanine Baca has had two hits in each of the last three games ... she batted .368 in the six games at the Speedline Invitational ... BGSU's first four wins at the Speedline all were shutouts, tying the school record of four consecutive shutouts that was set last year ... the Falcons have a total of seven homeruns this spring, matching the team's total for all of last year ... senior Gina Rango, the school's career leader in that category, has four round-trippers this season after hitting two last year ... Rango has a career total of 20 homers ... junior Lauren Hoffman has one of BG's homers this spring, with a pinch-hit two-run blast in Friday's (March 17) win over Towson ... Hoffman entered this season with career totals of two runs scored, one hit and zero runs batted in, but has six hits, two runs scored and six RBI in 2006 to date ... Rango currently has a seven-game hitting streak, tying the Falcons' season best ... sophomore Allison Vallas hit in seven-straight games earlier this spring.
