Bowling Green State University Athletics

Falcons Win Tenth Straight with 32 HR's to Date and Counting
April 17, 2007 | Softball
April 17, 2007
DETROIT - The Bowling Green (25-6) softball Falcons need both hands to count their current win streak after sweeping the Titans of the University of Detroit Mercy (9-20) at Detroit's Buysee Ballpark today. Karma played a bit of a trick on the Orange and Brown as BGSU needed nine innings to win the second game, 5-3, after run ruling the Titians in the first, 10-2.
Last season, the 2006 Falcons broke the single season HR record on May 7 against Northern Illinois with two against the Huskies and an additional three on May 12 at the MAC Tournament. This season the Falcons broke the record an amazing 26 games prior to last year's mark with the '07 Falcons saying hello to the record in their 31st contest of the season where as the '06 Falcons did it in their 56th.
Captains Hayley Wiemer and Ashley Zirkle earned Falcon long balls number 30 and 31 as BGSU began their own re-write of the BGSU record books surpassing the single season homerun record of 29 set last season. Freshman Susan Sontag added the 32nd in the second game and joins teammate Jeanine Baca as one of three BGSU freshmen to smack five in their first season with the program. Wiemer's HR was her eighth of the year and currently sits in a tie for third all-time in the single season homerun count with teammate Allison Vallas.
The Falcons are 1-1 in extra innings to date and are 12-0 when scoring five or more runs. With the sweep over Detroit, St. Bonaventure becomes the only squad to split a series with BGSU. The split with the Bonnies happened Mar. 7 in Charleston, S.C.
Bowling Green is 17-4 when competing against non-conference opponents.
With the wins, BGSU goes to 31-7 all-time against the Titans.
Eastern Michigan will be the next scheduled opponent for the Falcons and will host BGSU on Friday for a pair of conference contests beginning at 1:00 p.m. The Falcons will remain on their tour of Michigan as they face Central Michigan on Saturday and Sunday with first pitches set to be thrown at 2:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. respectively.
Game One BG 10, UDM 2 (6 innings)
Senior catcher Ashley Zirkle had a big game from the opposite side of the plate including a grand slam in the fifth inning and a game high eight RBI's. In four at bats, Zirkle took to the plate with the bases loaded three times and earned hits in each situation.
In her first at bat with loaded bases and just a single out, Zirkle cleared the base path with her double to right field scoring batters two through four in Emmy Ramsey, Wiemer and Vallas.
Ramsey, who as of late has been looking at home plate from the left instead of right fielding positions, helped Bowling Green maintain their 3-0 lead through the next UDM batting set by making a diving catch in left field to earn the last out in the three up - three down defensive series for the Falcons.
In the top of the third, Wiemer's eighth homerun of the season pushed the Falcons to break the single season homerun record with their 30th of the season and gave BGSU the 4-0 lead.
UDM answered Wiemer's homerun with a two RBI slam of their own when Kaleigh Rafter sent one deep to cut the Falcon lead to 4-2.
Both squads relied on their defense to keep the scoreboard quite until Vallas, in the fifth inning, stepped to the plate with bases loaded and scored Jeanine Baca. UDM second baseman Erica Houthooffd could not get her glove into the play to get the out at first or second on the Vallas hit. The RBI was Vallas' 91st run batted and in moved her into a tie for the second spot on the all-time career RBI list. Currently, 72 RBI's separate Vallas from all-time leader Gina Rango.
In the middle of the same inning, with her second loaded base situation, Zirkle slapped a whammy of a shot past the 200-yard indicator and over the fence for a grand slam. The hit provoked a Titan pitching change and the Falcons were up 9-2 after the salami.
Baca's double in sixth, which dropped in front of the centerfielder and narrowly missed her glove, seemed as if it would kick-off another big inning for the Falcons as she was joined on the bags by Ramsey. At the time Ramsey was the pinch runner for Kylie Baier's base hit. With Wiemer earning the walk, the bases were loaded yet again and BGSU had the chance to extend their lead. Baca, who occupied the hot corner, was called out at home on a fielder's choice and each of the base runners advanced to the next bag where the bases remained loaded. Zirkle, now expecting the pressure situation at the plate, snatched another RBI as she returned Ramsey for the go ahead score to give the Falcons the final 10-2 lead.
Sharon Palma stuck out three of the five batters she faced in relief in the final home batting inning. Gouge, the winning pitcher, struck out five in six innings allowing three hits.
Bowling Green scored their 10 runs on eight hits and played a perfect game in the field.
Game Two BG 5, UDM 3 (9 innings)
In game two, Susan Sontag led off the Falcon scoring with her homerun in the third inning. Sontag joins Baca and Rango as the only Falcon freshman to hit a handful of four basers in their first season.
Through two full innings Wiemer pitched a no hitter but it was broken up by Houtfhooffd's double to Sontag in left field.
The Falcons maintained the 1-0 lead when Wiemer and Zirkle saved the possible tie at home outing Rafter on the fielder's choice in the fifth.
UDM tied the score in the sixth when Sparkles Barclay scores on Adrienne Barran's base hit when BG couldn't hold on to the ball at home as Barclay scored from third. Despite runners in scoring position on the third and second base bags, a pop-up out to Carly Riepenhoff at second ended the inning.
As a result of the 1-1 tie at the conclusion of seven innings, the game was forced to be decided by the international tie-breaker rule where the last batter outted in the previous inning is placed on second base.
After retiring the Falcons in the visiting portion of the first extra inning, UDM's Sara Dickey laid down a bunt advancing Jacqueline Nortman, the placed runner, to third on a narrow safe ruling at first. The intentional walk thrown to Rafter loaded the bases but the Bowling Green defense avoided a threatening scoring situation picking up outs with flies to left field and a grounder to the pitcher.
BGSU began the ninth inning with Wiemer on second base and the sophomore was called out at third on the Vallas bunt. Nest, Vallas earned the second quick out with an aggressive base running situation from first to home on Zirkle's double. In a familiar situation for the Falcons, bases were loaded once again after Dawnjene DeLong was hit by a pitch and Brittnay Hay lined a hit back to the pitcher. Sontag's double to right field scored the first two Falcons in extra innings and was followed by Lauren Hoffman with a walk to advance to first. Baca's base hit earned the Falcons an additional two scores and the lead going into the bottom of the ninth.
The Titans scored additional runs in the final inning but were unable to overcome the Falcons 5-3 win in nine innings.