Bowling Green State University Athletics
Softball Falcons End Non-Conference Season and Test Rivals
April 24, 2007 | Softball
April 24, 2007
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The University of Michigan will serve as the last non-conference opponent of the season whereas the University of Toledo will be the final Mid-American Conference road test for the Falcons before hosting Senior Day next weekend. Wednesday's contest in Ann Arbor, Mich. will begin at 5:00 p.m. as the Falcons face their first Top Ten opponent this season. Bowling Green will then make the jaunt to Toledo on Saturday and Sunday for a pair of afternoon singles.
CURRENT FALCON EVENTS
After sputtering at the plate through a three game MAC losing streak, the Falcons came back to claim a victory over Central Michigan on Sunday afternoon ... BGSU scored twice in the first inning and held on to down the Chippewa's 3-2.
FOLLOWING THE FALCONS
Wednesday's game can be heard on 88.1 WBGU FM ... Anthony Bellino and Drew Evans will have the call on both live radio (88.1 FM) and via the BGSRO website (www.BGRSO.org) ... Michigan will also have a live stat feed via the main softball page on mgoblue.com ... live stats for the battles at UT can be seen by accessing GAMETRACKER on the softball schedule and results page via www.UTROCKETS.com.
FALCONS TO BE FEATURED ON NBC 24
Toledo's NBC 24 primetime broadcast will feature the Bowling Green Softball Falcons on Wednesday at 6:00 p.m. ... sports anchor Ryan Fowler recently visited the BGSU Softball Field to interview local student-athletes Allison Vallas and Hayley Wiemer regarding their recent homerun race.
FAMILY RIVALRY
Freshmen Carly Riepenhoff and Susan Sontag will face the Rockets for the first time this weekend donning the Orange and Brown ... Riepenhoff's older sister, tracey Coffman, is a Toledo graduate and was a four-year letterwinner on the Rockets softball team as a pitcher, middle infielder and an outfielder ... she graduated from Toledo with bachelor's degree in adolescent education and history in May 2002 and now coaches at Central Florida ... Sontag's father, David, played college baseball at Toledo.
NON-CONFERENCE SEASON ENDS
With the trip to Ann Arbor, the Falcons will end the non-conference portion of the 2007 schedule ... thus far, Bowling Green is 17-4 in non-conference play and has posted a perfect 3-0 non-conference record in the state of Michigan ... the Falcons have out-scored non-MAC opponents 107-41 and have 57 hits that have earned two or more bases while they have allowed 23 similar hits from their counterparts ... as a team, BGSU is hitting .282 and slugging .472 ... both Hayley Wiemer and Jeanine Baca have perfect fielding percentages in non-MAC contests.
BGSU AND FELLOW MAC SCHOOLS
Statistically the Falcons outrank opposing MAC schools in several categories ... BGSU leads the MAC in overall runs scored/game (4.77), homeruns/game (.91), RBIs/game (4.29), walks/game (3.14) and plate appearances/game (30.57) ... the squad is tied with KSU and Miami with a conference high eight shutouts this season and the pitching staff is posting the lowest ERA (1.65) ... Bowling Green is the only MAC team to have an overall record boasting the most wins and is the only squad to have less than 10 losses on the season (26-9) ... BGSU has the third best team BA in the MAC (.275).
FALCON PITCHING STAFF
From the rubber, the Falcons have become a dominate force and rank first in innings pitched/game (6.78), walks/game (1.18), HRs allowed/game (.38), runs allowed/game (2.15) and earned runs allowed/game (1.65) ... BG ranks second in strikeouts/game (7.02) and hits/game (5.43) ... individually, the pitchers rank in the top five in 8-of-10 categories ... Hayley Wiemer tops the walks allowed/game and triples/game ... Wiemer and Emily Gouge rank in the runs allowed/game and K/game categories.
FALCONS AT THE PLATE
Hayley Wiemer sits third overall in the MAC with a .420 BA ... the two players ahead of Wiemer have a combined three at bats ... Jeanine Baca's .91 runs scored/game is the second best in the MAC where as Wiemer's .83 is fourth ... Baca is fourth in doubles/game (.29) ... Allison Vallas, the team RBI leader, leads the MAC in the RBI/game column ... overall Bowling Green has at least one player in the top five in 8-of-11 hitting categories.
IN THE BATTER'S BOX
No. 8 Michigan (4/25, 5:00 p.m.)
The Wolverines bring a 37-8 overall record into Wednesday's match-up and are 4-1 at Alumni Field ... the eight-ranked Wolverines moved ahead one slot in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 poll after earning the No. 9 nod last week ... against fellow ranked opponents, they are currently 7-3 and have yet to see a Top 25 team in April ... last week, U-M split a double header series with Central Michigan (L 6-3, W 8-1) before taking their next four Big Ten games at Purdue and Indiana ... both IU games ended early as the Wolverines picked up a pair of run-rule shutout wins ... in 149 at bats, Alessandra Giampaolo leads the U-M bats with a .409 BA and 85 total bases ... she owns team highs with 34 runs, 61 hits and 17 doubles ... Samantha Findlay has also produced well from the plate with a team high 10 HRs and 31 RBIs ... Findlay has accumulated 32 runs on 43 hits this season ... she has been walked a team high 35 times ... from the rubber, Lorilyn Wilson and Nikki Nemitz have combined for all 37 wins and have thrown a combined 10 shutouts ... Wilson has sent 245 batters packing while sending 45 to first on the four ball count ... Nemitz has 110 K's and 25 BB's ... opposing bats have a .176 BA against the U-M staff ... Bowling Green is 5-25 all time against Michigan ... the last win over the regional opponent was April 25, 2003 ... the predicted forecast in Ann Arbor is a high of 49 with a mixture of rain and wind and a 90% chance of precipitation.
Toledo (4/28, 2:00 p.m., 4/29, 1:00 p.m.)
Toledo will begin the week with a 8-28 overall record before matching up with Cleveland State twice on Thursday afternoon at home ... the Rockets are 3-11 in MAC play after beating Eastern Michigan on Sunday in extra innings as a result of a seventh inning rally ... UT also beat Buffalo twice in the beginning of the season ... statistically, opponents are out performing UT in all batting categories despite the play of student-athletes such as Leslie Stong and Alison Hess ... Stong has accumulated the highest UT average at the plate posting a .323 and has connected for a team high 31 hits ... Hess leads the team with highs in the RBI (21), slugging (.663), total bases (59), homerun (7) and double (11) categories ... in the circle, the Falcons will more than likely face Stephanie Moore, Hannah Rockhold and/or Sierra Pereira ... Moore leads UT with her 24 appearances and 103.1 IP ... she has a 56-52 strikeout-walk ratio and has allowed 114 runs on 158 hits ... Rockhold has a 6.30 ERA in 53.1 IP while Pereira has a 6.85 ERA in 62.1 IP ... to date, the three are allowing over a .340 BA ... BGSU is 50-33 against the Rockets with their last wins coming on March 29-30 of last season ... the predicted forecast in Toledo on Saturday is a high of 66 with a partial clouds and a 10% chance of precipitation ... the predicted forecast in Toledo on Sunday is a high of 68 with a scattered thunderstorms mixture of rain and wind and a 60% chance of precipitation.
2007 MAC SOFTBALL STANDINGS AS OF APRIL 23, 2007
West Division
Eastern Michigan (7-3, 17-17)
Western Michigan (8-6, 16-17)
Central Michigan (5-5, 17-17)
Northern Illinois (7-7, 18-21)
Ball State (6-8, 17-28)
Toledo (3-11, 8-28)
East Division
Kent State (10-2, 24-15)
Bowling Green (9-5, 26-9)
Miami OH (8-6, 20-31-1)
Akron (5-5, 14-19)
Ohio (7-7, 18-24)
Buffalo (1-11, 3-37)
FALCONS SET HR RECORD WITH 32 AND COUNTING...
Hayley Wiemer smashed both the tying (29) and record breaking (30) homeruns this season ... Ashley Zirkle and Susan Sontag booted No. 31 and 32 ... Zirkle's HR was her second of the season and her first collegiate grand slam ... Sontag joins teammate Jeanine Baca as one of three BGSU freshmen to smack five HRs 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 ... current Falcons with at least one long ball include: Hayley Wiemer (8), Allison Vallas (8), Dawnjene DeLong (4), Jeanine Baca (3), Susan Sontag (5), Carly Riepenhoff (2), Ashley Zirkle (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 ... Bowling Green has not gone more than three games without hitting a homerun (Apr. 6-13) ... during the Feb. 24-Mar.4 timeframe BGSU went nine straight games hitting at least one homerun ... currently, the Falcons have hit a homerun in the past five games ... this is the first Falcon team to hit more than 30 in a season.
SALSBURG FIRST BGSU HEAD COACH IN OPENING SEASON TO ...
With less than a full season under her belt, first time head coach Shannon Salsburg is the first BGSU head coach to post a winning record at the conclusion of her first opening weekend at the helm of the program ... Salsburg's Falcons went 4-1 at the Panera Bread Challenge ... they also won two of three spring tournaments ... she is the only first-year head coach to win more than 25 games ... her team is also the only team to hit more than 30 HRs in a single season.
FILLIN' THE TROPHY CASE
In three spring tournaments, the Falcons appeared in three championship games and brought home two tournament crowns ... BGSU won both the Panera Bread Challenge and the Charleston Southern Tournaments while taking second in the USF Speedline tournament ... while on the road, Hayley Wiemer was named CSU tournament MVP ... Wiemer was also named both MAC East Player of the Week and Scholar-Athlete of the Week for the week of Mar. 9 following her performance in Charleston ... she garnished the honor again on April 5, 2007 and April 16, 2007... Emily Gouge and Susan Sontag were also named to the CSU All-Tournament team ... Gouge also picked up honors as the Most Valuable Pitcher at the USF tournament ... she was named the MAC East Pitcher of the Week four days later ... Allison Vallas earned Player of the Week status on Apr. 19 ... in the same week she was named Scholar-Athlete of the Week.
