Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
NORTHERN ILLINOIS
Falcons Stay Alive in MAC Tournament with 7-1 Win over NIU
May 11, 2007 | Softball
May 11, 2007
MIDLAND, Mich. (BGSUFalcons.com) - Bowling Green (33-11) crushed pitches and Northern Illinois' (25-28) hopes to advance further in the MAC tournament as they shattered the scoreboard with their 7-1 win over the seventh seeded Huskies. The Falcons continued to increase their power hitting production as Ashley Zirkle, Jeanine Baca and Susan Sontag drove a trio of homeruns out of the park. The Falcons have hit 47 total distance explosions to date.
The Orange and Brown co-captains took it upon themselves to crank BGSU's scoring engine in the first inning when Zirkle booted career homerun No. 12 and scored Baca and Wiemer who were occupying third and second base, respectively. Zirkle's four base grinder at the time tied the catcher with Wiemer and Baca at fourth on the career homerun list until Baca sailed one of her own.
To lead off the third, Baca, who had a perfect batting day (4-4) contributed to the "Controversial Play of the Day" reel when she returned a pitch to right center where the NIU outfielder crashed into the break-away fence and dropped the ball as she fell out of bounds. After much deliberation, the play was ruled a two base hit. Allison Vallas later followed the hit with a two baser of her own to return Baca but was left stranded at second to end the inning.
NIU's first baseman Randi Kreiter scored the NIU run in the fourth inning via a solo homerun beyond the first base path.
The Falcons scored again in the fifth when Vallas earned a bases loaded RBI walk scoring Carly Riepenhoff from third. Despite upholding the full base count, BGSU was not able to score again as a result of Zirkle's line to third which also tagged Baca at the corner base to end the inning.
The second BG homerun came in the top of the sixth inning as Susan Sontag got a hold of the Husky pitch and pushed the ball past two fences and a sidewalk to score the sixth run of the challenge. The freshman has hit a total of nine homeruns on the season and is tied with Vallas, a junior, for second on the team. Both she and Vallas are even with former Falcons Gina Rango for the third most HR's in a single season. Sontag, the career freshman single season leader is one TNT detonation shy of doubling her nearest first year counterpart.
In the final outing at bat, Baca, determined to earn all four bases in one fail swoop, forgot about the long shot ruled as a double in the third inning and cranked one over the left fielder's head for the 7-1 lead. To smack equated to the fifth BG battle this season where the Falcons hit three HRs. This was also the second time in one week where the Falcons hit three over the Huskies.
Bowling Green has out scored NIU 20-3 this season in three meetings including seven homeruns and 19 RBI's on 26 hits.
Bowing Green is set to face Central Michigan at 5:00 p.m. after the Chippewa's overcame Kent State in a wild 3.5 hour extra inning head-to-head competition that ended on a KSU outfield error.
