Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
NORTHERN ILLINOIS
Falcons Eliminated From MAC Softball Tournament
May 07, 2009 | Softball
May 7, 2009
Akron, Ohio - The Bowling Green softball team's season came to an end Thursday with a 9-4 loss to Northern Illinois in the Mid-American Conference Softball Tournament, held at Firestone Stadium in Akron. The Falcons entered the event as the No. 8 seed and lost both of their games in the double elimination tournament.
Bowling Green and Northern Illinois played a pair of high scoring games in the regular season meetings between the two teams and Thursday's MAC Tournament game was much of the same. After a scoreless first inning, the runs began to come in bunches.
Carly Norton led off the top of the second with a line drive that cleared the left field wall to give the Huskies a 1-0 lead. But Bowling Green quickly answered back as Zada Lines singled to open the bottom of the second and Susan Sontag followed by tattooing the next pitch over the right field wall for her fifth homer of the season.
Northern Illinois rallied in the top of the third with three runs on three hits to take a 4-2 lead but Bowling Green came back in the bottom of the third and cut the deficit in half. Lindsay Arney opened the frame with a bunt single and moved to third on a Karmen Coffey single to centerfield. Hayley Wiemer then singled just over the Northern Illinois shortstop's outstretched glove to make the score 4-3.
The Huskies got that run back in the top of the fourth on a pair of hits and then blew the game open in the sixth by scoring four runs on four hits and getting help from two Bowling Green errors.
Down 9-3, the Falcons tried to rally in the bottom of the seventh. Missy Bowman led off the frame with her third homerun of the season and Haleigh Bielstein then singled. Melissa Bott picked up a pinch hit walk but Northern Illinois' Morgan Bittner struck out the next two batters and closed out the game with a ground out back to the pitcher.
Northern Illinois outhit Bowling Green 14-8 for the contest, picking up 13 hits in 5 2/3 innings off of Weimer. Lines came in for the final 1 1/3 innings, allowing one hit and striking out one. Only four of the Huskies' nine runs were earned.
Bowling Green's eight hits came from eight different players and Sontag led the Falcons with two RBI.
Northern Illinois improves to 19-36 with the win and Bowling Green's season comes to a close at 13-33. The Falcons had just one senior on the team in Weimer. Her career comes to a close as the school's all-time homerun leader (32) and was a four-time first team All-MAC performer. She led the team in slugging percentage, on base percentage, home runs and RBI in 2009, as well as being the team's main pitcher, throwing 222 2/3 of a possible 286 1/3 innings.
