Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
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Vallas has Phenomenal Day at the Office
April 14, 2007 | Softball
April 14, 2007
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BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - Junior first baseman Allison Vallas had an extraordinary day against Ball State at the BGSU Softball Field packing the one-two punch in the two base column and slamming her eight homerun on the year while picking up a trio of RBI's. As if her hitting was not impressive enough, Vallas was a perfect 3-for-3 and it only took seven pitches. She is currently leading the Falcons in MAC play with a .481 BA and is .410 on the season.
BGSU picked up the 5-0 win over the West division MAC visitor Ball State and notched their seventh win in conference play. Bowling Green has won seven straight MAC decisions after dropping their opening pair to Kent State and is 22-6 on the year. Ball State is now 15-24 overall and a respectable 6-5 in conference games.
With the shut out win, Ball State remains scoreless against the Orange and Brown dating back to the 2004 season. Additionally, BSU has not beaten the Falcons since the 2002 season in MAC action in Muncie, Ind.
In the visitors opening batting appearance, BSU's Kelli Jeziorski picked up the first of the Cards' two game hits with a double to the outfield. The Falcon defense, not intimidated by BSU's national ranking in the stolen base category, caught Jeziorski stealing as she was tagged by shortstop Dawnjene DeLong at third. Taylor Yancy's single with two outs would be the last Cardinal hit for the game and she was left on base when Abby Gross was struck out by BGSU's Emily Gouge. Gouge proceeded to send seven BSU batters packing including a combined five straight between the third and fourth innings.
Vallas began her dominance over BSU pitcher Elizabeth Milian in the first inning when her zinger to the outfield dropped inside of the wall for a double that scored Hayley Wiemer from first base. Vallas had hit several similar balls in BP and was on track to hit several more. BGSU could not bring Vallas back in and took a narrow 1-0 lead with one inning under their belts.
From the plate, Milian threatened to return one of Gouge's pitches deep towards the BGSU batting cages but fouled long twice for the immediate 0-2 count in the pitcher's favor. Had Milian connected, the score could have evened itself quickly, instead she registered the backwards K and was the first of nine consecutive BSU outs over the span of three visitor batting innings.
Bowling Green looked to light their own fire in the second inning as a wild pitch advanced Susan Sontag and Brittnay Hay to third and second, respectively, but the two potential runs were left in the base path to end the inning with the score still 1-0 after two.
In a similar performance of the first inning, Wiemer cleared a two base shot to left field sending Emmy Ramsey home from first base in the bottom of the third. Vallas, the third batter of the inning, brought Wiemer back to the warm dugout and traded places with Wiemer once again for yet another score and RBI effort. Vallas remained at second through one batter and rode the wave back to cross home plate herself when DeLong smacked a base hit that earned an extra base on a mishandle by Brittney Jones at centerfield. The Falcons closed the inning with DeLong looking to score from second hoping to add another run to their existing 4-0 lead.
The Vallas hitting bonanza reached it peak in the fourth as the Perrysburg, Ohio native cracked a shot towards her hometown upping her career homerun record to 11 in a Falcon uniform. Vallas hit her mark with an 0-1 count.
Bowling Green converted nine hits into five runs and their 43rd win over BSU.
With her outstanding performance, Vallas takes over the sole possession of the third best all-time RBI career total with 90 and is just one short of tying Dena Romstadt in the runner-up slot. The junior currently leads the Falcons with 30 RBI's on the season. She also holds the third best single season homerun record with eight behind a pair of season bests by Gina Rango.
With their recent success from the circle, both Gouge and Wiemer advance through the ranks of Falcon pitchers and join an elite group of former Falcons to toss 200+ strikeouts. Currently, Gouge has 242 career K's while Wiemer has retired 208 batters.
The Bowling Green Birds are not cleared from the Ball State Cardinals just yet and will face the Red Birds from Muncie, Ind. tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. at the BGSU Softball Field.
