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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Softball Falcons Face First MAC Road Tests
April 05, 2007 | Football
April 5, 2007
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Falcons (17-6, 2-2) will pack their suitcases and spend the weekend on the road playing in a conference sponsored double header on Friday in Athens, Ohio taking on the Ohio University Bobcats (14-17, 3-1). Saturday and Sunday the Orange and Brown will find themselves in Akron, Ohio for two additional Mid-American Conference games against the Akron Zips (9-14, 1-3).
FOLLOWING THE FALCONS
The weekend's games will not be available through the BGRSO website ... Friday's games at Ohio may be viewed live on GAMETRACKER via the OU athletic website www.OhioBobcats.com ... Saturday and Sunday's live game statistics can be accessed via www.GoZips.com.
HOMERUN HUNT - **CORRECTED**
Previous records regarding the BGSU combined team homeruns hit in a single season was believed to be 32, yet it has been found the record is in fact 29 in a single season and was set last season ... in 2007, the Falcons have already dropped 25 grenades past the fence ... in 28 complete seasons, only four have seen the Falcons go the distance more than 20 times (`01-21, `03-20, `04-26, `06-29) ... current Falcons with at least one long ball include: Hayley Wiemer (6), Allison Vallas (6), Dawnjene DeLong (4), Jeanine Baca (3), Susan Sontag (3), Carly Riepenhoff (2), Ashley Zirkle (1) ... head coach Shannon Salsburg, a true hitter's coach, is also breaking records as the only first year head coach to lead a team to ten-plus long balls in her initial year at the helm.
CATCHING UP ON CURRENT FALCON EVENTS
Last week, the Falcons played a total of five games posting a 3-2 record to close the month of March ... in a mid-week dual, BGSU beat MSU in East Lansing 11-1 in a six inning routing ... after dropping a pair to rival Kent State (3-1, 4-2) in Friday's home opener, BGSU rebounded to defeat Buffalo 9-3 and 9-0 (5) on Saturday ... the UB contests were both played on Saturday due to expected weather conditions instead of the scheduled Saturday/Sunday meetings.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
With the sticks
Together, the Falcons are currently batting just under .300 with a .283 team BA ... the Orange and Brown have scored 113 runs off 170 hits ... Of the 113 runs, 98 were supported by RBI's ... Hayley Wiemer continues to lead the Falcons in BA (.448), RBI's (22), t-HR (6), total bases (54) and slugging percentage (.806) ... lead-off hitter Jeanine Baca is making her senior year one to remember as she is currently batting .384 over the span of a team high 73 plate appearances ... Baca leads the Falcons in runs scored (24), doubles (7) and triples (1) ... Vallas and Zirkle are also over .300 to date.
On the bags
When the Falcons score in the first inning they are 10-1 whereas if they score first they are 15-1 ... BGSU has a .360 on base percentage and have accumulated 281 total bases ... Jeanine Baca is the only Falcon to have double digit stolen bases ... she is 10-12 on the season with a stolen base percentage of .833.
Off the hill
The Falcons have struck out 162 batters they have faced .... Emily Gouge is responsible for a team high 89 SO's ... BGSU has shutout six opponents and is holding the opposing bats to a .188 batting average ... the Falcon pitching staff has given up just 16 doubles and 11 homeruns on the year ... the staff has walked just 29 of the 574 batters faced.
On the defense
BG has allowed their opponents to score just 46 runs to date ... the defense, combining for a .959 fielding percentage, has turned four double plays this season and has committed 27 errors.
INSIDE THE BATTERS BOX
Ohio University (4/6, 1:00 p.m. DH)
The Bobcats are 14-17 in the current season and are 3-1 in the MAC ... in MAC play, OU beat Ball State twice and split games with Miami ... OU outscored their conference opponents 10-2 during opening weekend ... three Bobcats are batting over .300 ... Shalen Patrich leads OU with a .356 BA and 16 runs ... she has also completed 17-of-20 stolen base attempts ... Debbie Szalejko leads OU with 33 hits and 10 walks ... she is batting .355 ... Kelly Rodriquez, batting .352, is one of six Bobcats to knock one out of the park ... she leads OU with 42 total bases and 19 RBI's ... as a team the Bobcats are hitting .264 ... opponents are slightly edging OU from the plate with a .270 BA ... atop the hill, Michelle Sauter has earned 15 starts winning eight (8-7) ... she is posting a 2.36 ERA ... Natalie Armstrong has earned eight starts (3-5) and has a 3.10 ERA ... Candace Saucedo is posting a team low 1.96 ERA and is 3-2 on the season ... the top three Green and White pitchers have allowed 164-of-the-210 total hits and 82-of-the-112 total runs ... the three have also let up 11-of-the-16 homeruns hit thus far ... Bowling Green leads the all-time series with Ohio 47-32 with the last win coming in the 2006 MAC tournament, 3-0 ... last season the Falcons were 2-1 against Ohio ... the one loss was a 3-1 decision in 12 innings ... Friday's predicted forecast for Athens, Ohio is partly cloudy with a high of 44 degrees and a 10% chance of precipitation.
Akron (4/7, 2:00 p.m., 4/8, 1:00 p.m.)
The Zips are currently 9-14 on the season and are 1-3 after their opening weekend in conference competition ... they were out scored 18-6 in four MAC games ... as a team the Zips are batting .191 in MAC games ... overall, three Zips are batting over .300 ... Katrina Moffett is boasting a team high .349 but has only scored four runs on the season including a homerun ... she has collected a team high 29 total bases on 22 hits ... she is one of two Zips to accumulate nine RBI's ... Cali Stratton has tallied a .324 BA to date ... of her 22 hits, none are greater than two base hits ... she has hit four doubles ... she is tied for second in total bases (26) ... Lisa McLean is also batting above .300 with her .315 BA ... she leads Akron with 11 runs on 23 hits in 73 at bats ... in 17 appearances, Lindsay Bodeker has thrown 55 strikeouts and is allowing batters a .245 BA ... she has a 1.43 ERA in 83.1 innings of play ... in conference play Bodeker has a 0.00 ERA and a record of 1-2 ... in 42.2 innings, Sara Tervo has yet to toss a wild pitch and is allowing batters to accumulate a batting average of .279 ... she has struckout 24 opposing batters ... overall, when Akron is held to less that two runs, the Zips are 0-11 ... furthermore, the Zips are 2-8 when trailing after four innings and are 1-13 when trailing after six ... currently, Akron is 4-0 when hitting one homerun in a game, but drop to 4-6 when an opponent hits one deep ... Akron has yet to win a game when an opponent scores more than five runs ... historically, BGSU leads the Akron series 38-20-1 ... in their most recent meeting, BGSU beat Akron 4-0 in the MAC tournament ... last season, BGSU was 2-1 against the Zips ... Saturday's predicted forecast for Akron, Ohio is possible snow showers with a high of 32 degrees and a 60% chance of precipitation ... Sunday calls for few snow showers with a high of 36 degrees and a 30% chance of precipitation.
BOWLING GREEN AND THE MAC EAST
After one weekend of games, BGSU sits in the middle of the pack with Ohio (3-1) and Kent State (4-0) leading the MAC East ... BGSU is tied with Miami as both have records of 2-2 ... Akron (1-3) and Buffalo (0-4) round out the East ... KSU is the only MAC participant to have a perfect record after the first four games played.
THE MAC WEST
Northern Illinois and Eastern Michigan lead the western division with 3-1 records in conference play ... Ball State, Toledo and Central Michigan each have .500 records of 2-2 ... preseason favorite Western Michigan is 1-3 in the MAC.
MAC COMPOSITE SCHEDULE FOR THE WEEKEND OF APRIL 6 - 8
04/06 @ 1 p.m.
Buffalo at Eastern Michigan
Western Michigan at Ball State
Kent State at Central Michigan
Toledo at Akron
Northern Illinois at Miami OH
Bowling Green at Ohio
04/06 @ 3 p.m.
Western Michigan at Ball State
Kent State at Central Michigan
Bowling Green at Ohio
Toledo at Akron
Buffalo at Eastern Michigan
04/07 @ 2 p.m.
Bowling Green at Akron
Buffalo at Central Michigan
Toledo at Ohio
Kent State at Eastern Michigan
Northern Illinois at Ball State
Western Michigan at Miami OH
04/08 @ 1 p.m.
Northern Illinois at Ball State
Bowling Green at Akron
Buffalo at Central Michigan
WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT THE FALCONS
The 2007 Softball Falcons are making a name for themselves after finding success in each of their three pre-conference season tournaments ... the Falcons, as a team and with respect to their own individual talent, are a topic of discussion in the print media ... visit the link from the "Falcon Notes" sidebar to discover the praise those outside of the program are giving head coach Shannon Salsburg and the BGSU softball student-athletes ... this page, provided free of charge by the BGSU athletic communications office, contains as many links as possible to articles relating to the 2006-07 women's softball Falcons ... these links and PDF's are provided as a service to out-of-market media that need information on a team they do not cover on a daily basis, as well as to media members and fans who are already quite familiar with the team ... as often as possible, this page will be updated with the latest breaking news and feature stories.
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 ... 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.
