Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Face DePaul, Toledo This Week
April 25, 2006 | Softball
April 25, 2006
BGSU Notes, Stats & Records in PDF Format
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Click HERE to (hopefully) access live stats for Wednesday's games via www.depaulbluedomens.com
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - With just two weekends remaining in the Mid-American Conference regular season, the Bowling Green State University softball team is embroiled in the battle for the East Division title ... before returning to league action this weekend, the Falcons of eighth-year head coach Leigh Ross (30-18, 11-5 MAC) will head to the Windy City to face a powerful non-conference foe ... BGSU will take on DePaul University in a Wednesday (April 26) doubleheader, with the first pitch of game one set for 3:00 p.m. locally (4:00 p.m. Eastern) at Cacciatore Stadium ... then, the Falcons will return home for the final two games of the season at the BGSU Softball Field ... BGSU will host the arch-rival University of Toledo in a pair of weekend games ... Saturday's (April 29) game will begin at 2:00 p.m., with Sunday's (April 30) contest scheduled for a 1:00 p.m. start ... the latter game, the final home game of 2006, will be preceded by 'Senior Day' festivities.
THANKS, SENIORS
Sunday's game vs. Toledo is the final home contest on the 2006 schedule, and in keeping with Falcon tradition, will be preceded by 'Senior Day' ceremonies ... the Falcons' five seniors -- Natalie Armintrout, Abby Habicht, Lindsay Heimrich, Gina Rango and Liz Vrabel -- will be recognized prior to the game.
THE MAC RACE
With just two weekends left in the MAC's regular-season race, all 12 schools remain in the running for a berth in the league tournament ... eight teams - the top three from each division plus the next two teams with the best overall winning percentage, regardless of division -- will qualify for the double-elimination tournament ... if the season ended today, the Falcons would be the third seed and would open tourney play against last weekend's opponent, Eastern Michigan ... the overall MAC seeding can be found in the pdf version of this release.
FALCONS GARNER 30TH WIN
The Falcons have won 30 games for the fourth time in the eight-year Leigh Ross head-coaching tenure, and the seventh time in school history ... additionally, BGSU has surpassed the win total for all of last season (29-30).
FALCONS GO 4-2 LAST WEEK
BGSU posted four wins in six games last week, beginning with a doubleheader sweep of Oakland, 3-1 and 2-0 ... the Brown and Orange dropped a pair of contests vs. Central Michigan on Friday (April 22), before picking up back-to-back 'walk-off' victories against Eastern Michigan ... on Saturday, sophomore Allison Vallas singled up the middle in the 10th inning for a 3-2 win ... the next day, another single up the middle, this time off the bat of Lindsay Heimrich, gave the Falcons a 2-1, nine-inning win ... senior Liz Vrabel pitched all 19 innings vs. the Eagles, allowing a total of just nine hits.
LEADING OFF
GAMETRACKER / TELEVISION
It'll be another multi-media frenzy for Falcon softball this week ... Wednesday's games at DePaul are scheduled to have live stats available at DU's athletics web site, www.depaulbluedemons.com ... then, this weekend, both games vs. Toledo will feature live statistics on the web via GameTracker, free of charge, at BGSUFalcons.com ... additionally, both of the UT games are slated to be televised in the Toledo area by the Buckeye Cablesystem (BCSN) ... the latest updates re: broadcast dates and times can be found at the station's web site, www.bcsn.tv.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
The Falcons enter the week with a record of 30-18 on the season ... BGSU has a MAC record of 11-5, good for second place in the league's East Division ... the Falcons are in a virtual tie with Akron (10-4) for the division lead, but the Zips are in first place based on winning percentage ... the Falcons went 4-2 last week, sweeping two-game series from Oakland and Eastern Michigan, but dropping a pair of contests to Central Michigan ... BG participated in four tournaments this spring, winning two of them - the USF Speedline Invitational in Tampa (March 17-19) and the Panera Bread Challenge in Chattanooga, Tenn. (Feb. 24-26), going a perfect 6-0 in the latter ... the Falcons went 1-5 at the Compass Bank Invitational in Waco, Texas, a tourney that pitted BGSU against teams either ranked or receiving votes in the national polls in all six games ... the win in that tourney came vs. #13/15 Washington ... the next weekend (March 10-12), BG went 3-2 at the Worth Classic, hosted by Florida Atlantic ... BGSU is hitting .264 as a team, while allowing opponents to hit just .204 ... senior Gina Rango, the 2005 MAC Player of the Year, is hitting .377 this season to date ... Rango has a slugging percentage of .616, and has seven homeruns and 27 runs batted in ... she leads the Falcons in seven offensive categories ... freshman Hayley Wiemer is batting .323, while classmate Desiree Miller has a .303 average, three homers and 23 RBI ... senior Abby Habicht and sophomore Allison Vallas and are hitting .292 and .286, respectively ... Wiemer leads the Falcons with 21 walks, while Vallas has 17 and Habicht and junior Jeanine Baca 16 each ... Baca is hitting .266 and is tied for the team lead with 25 runs scored ... she paces the Falcons with 12 stolen bases ... in the circle, senior Liz Vrabel, the reigning MAC Pitcher of the Year, has a 16-9 record and an earned-run average of 1.46 ... she leads the Falcons in wins and ERA, and also has a team-high total of 169 strikeouts ... sophomore Emily Gouge has a record of 7-0 and a 1.51 ERA, while Wiemer is 7-9 with a 1.56 ERA and a team-high four saves ... Vrabel has allowed opponents to hit just .178 against her ... head coach Leigh Ross has 13 letterwinners, including a total of seven positional starters, back 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 OPPONENTS
DePaul has a record of 24-15 on the season, and the Blue Demons are 9-5 in Big East Conference play ... DU hosts Northern Illinois in a Tuesday (April 25) twinbill before facing the Falcons on Wednesday ... the Blue Demons enter the week on a four-game winning streak after sweeping doubleheaders from Rutgers and Villanova over the weekend ... DU is 9-3 at home, entering the NIU twinbill ... individually, freshman Amber Patton is hitting .368, while sophomore Marcy Wilus has a .337 batting average ... junior pitcher Tracie Adix has a 9-5 record and a 1.92 ERA, while classmate Megan Huitink has a 1.98 ERA and a 6-4 mark ... the Blue Demons, in their first season in the Big East, won four consecutive Conference USA titles and advanced to the Women's College World Series last season ... in 2005, DU went 45-21 overall and 19-5 in C-USA play ... head coach Eugene Lenti is in his 25th season with the Blue Demons ... web: www.depaulbluedemons.com.
Toledo is 13-32 overall, and the Rockets have a MAC record of 4-11 ... UT takes on Cleveland State in a Wednesday road twinbill before meeting BGSU this weekend ... the Midnight Blue and Gold rebounded from a pair of lopsided losses to Eastern Michigan (15-3 in five innings, 11-3) to split a doubleheader with Central Michigan over the weekend ... the Rockets beat the Chippewas, 1-0, before losing the nightcap by a 4-3 count ... senior Gina Muratori is batting a team-high .336, while sophomore Leslie Stong has a .333 batting average ... freshman Sierra Pereira is 7-14 with a 5.27 ERA, while junior Stephanie Moore has a 6-18 record and a 6.36 ERA ... last year, the Rockets were 26-29 overall and 5-16 in conference action ... Jo Ann Gordon is in her fourth year at the helm ... web: www.utrockets.com.
THE SERIES
BGSU trails DePaul, 1-0, in the all-time series between the teams ... the lone prior meeting was a 3-2 win for the Blue Demons in a tournament in Fullerton, Calif., on March 25, 1995.
BGSU leads Toledo, 48-33, in that series, and the Falcons won two of three meetings last year ... BG handed UT a 7-1 defeat at the Hoo's Who Tournament in Charlottesville, Va. (March 18, 2005), and the teams split a doubleheader to open the MAC schedule the next week, with the Rockets winning a 2-1 decision before the Falcons captured a 6-2 verdict at the BGSU Softball Field (March 27, 2005) ... BGSU has won 17 of the 19 games between the arch-rival schools since Leigh Ross became head coach at BGSU.
