Bowling Green State University Athletics
Gina Rango Named MAC Player of the Week
May 01, 2006 | Softball
May 1, 2006
CLEVELAND, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) - Bowling Green State University softball standout Gina Rango has been named a Mid-American Conference Player of the Week, the league office announced Monday afternoon (May 1). Rango earns the honor for the second time this season and the fourth time in her illustrious Falcon career.
Rango, the 2005 MAC Player of the Year, capped her home career in a memorable way. A native of North Lima, Ohio (Boardman H.S.), the senior hit .750 as the Falcons swept a pair of games against arch-rival Toledo. She had the walk-off hit in both games, including a homerun to lead off the bottom of the eighth inning in Sunday's (April 30) 6-5 victory.
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Rango opened the scoring with a solo homer in the bottom of the first inning, and had a pair of singles, including one in the sixth inning as BG rallied from a 5-1 deficit. Her homerun in the eighth was her 10th of the season, breaking her own school record.
On Saturday (April 29), Rango was 2-for-4 with a homer and three RBI. She had a two-run shot in the third inning to erase a 2-0 deficit, then singled to score junior Jeanine Baca in the bottom of the seventh.
Her multi-homer game on Sunday tied the school record. She is the lone Falcon in history to have more than one career two-HR game, owning three of the six such games in BG annals.
In the two MAC games, Rango had four runs scored, three homers, five RBI and a slugging percentage of 1.875. She hit a team-high .583 in the team's four total games on the week, with a slugging pct. of 1.333.
On the season, Rango is hitting .392 with the school-record 10 homers and 32 RBI. In MAC games only, she is hitting an eye-popping .450 and slugging .783.
Rango was named the MAC Player of the Week for the East Division. Miami's Courtney Salmon was named the division's pitcher of the week. In the West, Central Michigan's Amy Hudson and Eastern Michigan's Lauren Clark shared player-of-the-week honors, while Krysten Shumaker of Western Michigan, BG's next opponent, was named the pitcher of the week.
The Falcons enter the final week of the regular season with an overall record of 32-20 and a league mark of 13-5. BGSU, currently leading the MAC's East Division, will take on West-leading WMU in a Friday (May 5) doubleheader in Kalamazoo. Then, the Falcons will continue on to the MAC's "West Coast" for single games against Northern Illinois on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon (May 6-7). BGSU has qualified for the MAC Tournament, which will be held May 10-13 in Midland, Mich.
