Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcon Softball Squad Announces 2010 Schedule
January 21, 2010 | Softball
Bowling Green, Ohio—Bowling Green State University softball coach Shannon Salsburg and her Falcon squad have officially announced the 2010 softball schedule. The Falcons will be looking to build off a 13-33 overall (8-14 MAC) record in 2009.
The Falcons will, as always, face tough competition this season as they are set to compete against four schools that were nationally ranked by both the ESPN.com/USA Softball Poll and the USA Today/NFCA Top 25 Poll. The 2010 Orange and Brown squad will also be battling it out against six schools that competed in the 2009 NCAA Softball Championship; two of which went on to fight for the 2009 Softball World Series title.
“We are excited to announce our 2010 schedule,” said Coach Salsburg. “We believe that our tough preseason will prepare us for the highly competitive year we expect in the MAC.”
The Falcons will kick off the 2010 schedule with three preseason tournaments down south. Before MAC play begins, BGSU will compete against schools from some of the most prominent conferences in the nation, including the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), the Southeastern Conference (SEC), the Big Ten, the Big East, and Conference USA.
In their first tournament of the season (Feb. 12-14), BGSU will travel to Tallahassee, Fla., to square off against teams from the ACC and Conference USA in the 2010 Sunshine Classic. Teams competing include Mercer, Florida State, Southern Mississippi and Iona.
As of June 6, 2009, Florida State ranked 22nd in the USA Today/NFCA Top 25 poll and 25th in the ESPN.com/USA Softball poll.
With less than a week in between tournaments, the Orange and Brown sluggers will hit the road again for Woodstock, Ga., to compete in the Red and Black Classic (Feb.19-21). Here, the Falcons will face off against Western Carolina, Georgia, Winthrop and Virginia Tech.
Georgia, a member of the SEC, made it to the 2009 Softball World Series. Here, the Bulldogs lost their first game to Washington but rallied back in the tournament to defeat Missouri and Michigan before losing their second game of double elimination play to Washington. In June, the Bulldogs ranked fourth in both the ESPN.com/USA Softball poll and the USA Today/UFCA Top 25 poll.
In their final preseason tournament before plunging into MAC play, BGSU will head south once again for the 2010 Buzz Classic (March 5-7) in Atlanta, Ga. The Falcons will open the 2010 Buzz Classic against Dartmouth, followed directly by a game against Tennessee-Martin, who made it to the 2009 NCAA Softball Tournament, but lost in the first round. On the final two days of the tournament, the Falcons square off against North Carolina-Greensboro, Georgia State and North Florida.
After 43 days and 14 preseason games on the road, the Falcons will kick off the regular season portion of the schedule. The Falcons regular season schedule will prove to be a grueling one as they will play 12 games on the road and will see only seven games at home.
The first game of the Orange and Brown's regular season schedule will be about as tough as they come for the rest of the season. On March 24, BGSU will compete against the University of Michigan, a member of the Big East Conference, in Ann Arbor, Mich. In 2009, the Wolverines made it to the final round of the Women's College Softball World Series, only to lose back-to-back games against Florida and Georgia. The Wolverines were ranked 5th and 6th in the ESPN.com/USA Softball poll and USA
Today/NFCA Top 25 poll, respectively.
A week and a half later (April 2-4), the Falcons will finally see their first home game of the 2010 season. The Falcons will face off against Central Michigan (12-31 overall; 4-17 MAC) and Eastern Michigan (22-30 overall; 8-14 MAC) for their first look at MAC competition of the year.
BGSU will then find themselves in a midweek matchup against the University of Notre Dame on Wednesday, April 7. The Fighting Irish fought for a spot in the second round of the 2009 NCAA Softball Tournament, but lost to Michigan twice in double-elimination play.
The following weekend, April 10 and 11, the Falcons will meet I-75 rival, the Toledo Rockets (8-38 overall; 6-16 MAC) for their second set of home games. Last season, the Falcons defeated the Rockets in both games, played at Meserve Field.
BGSU will then take a break from MAC competition to go face-to-face against Big Ten contender, Ohio State University (47-10 overall) in Columbus, Ohio on Wednesday, April 14. In 2009 OSU made it to the second round of the NCAA Softball Tournament, but lost twice to Georgia in the best-of-three competition.
The Orange and Brown return home for their final home stand of the 2010 season. BGSU will play host to Western Michigan (25-22 overall; 16-6 MAC) and Northern Illinois (20-37 overall; 12-10 MAC).
The Falcons will then see a two week stretch of road games; comprising of nine games against six MAC contenders.
From April 23-25, BGSU will travel to Muncie, Ind., and Oxford, Ohio, to square off against Ball State (29-24 overall; 18-3 MAC) and Miami (Ohio) (33-24 overall; 13-9 MAC). Last season, the Miami RedHawks were the only MAC school to compete in the 2009 NCAA Softball Tournament. The RedHawks were eliminated in the first round with losses to Michigan and Notre Dame.
The next weekend, April 30-May 2, the Falcons will continue their nine road game stretch with games against the Akron Zips (35-24 overall; 11-10 MAC) and the Ohio Bobcats (22-25 overall; 12-10 MAC). When the Falcons last met the Zips and the Bobcats in 2009, the Falcons came away with one win and one loss, on each set.
BGSU will round out their two week road game stretch and regular season competition with trips to Buffalo, NY and Kent, Ohio. The Falcons will take on the Buffalo Bulls (25-27 overall; 7-15 MAC) on May 7 and end the weekend with two games against the Kent State Golden Flashes (25-26 overall; 15-6 MAC) on May 8 and 9. The 2009 Orange and Brown squad split games with both the Bulls and the Flashes, walking away from each set with one win and one loss. When BGSU meets with Kent for the final set of games of the regular season, the two teams will be vying for the second to last set of Centennial Cup points on the year.
The 2010 Falcon squad has returned eleven players from last year's team and welcomes 6 newcomers. Returning Falcons include Carly Riepenhoff, Rachel Proehl, who led the team in batting average (.324), Lindsay Arney, Haleigh Bielstein, Melissa West, who led the team in hits (40) and triples (5), Karmen Coffey, who led the team in stolen bases (3), Zada Lines, Katelynn Boso, Missy Bowman, Susan Sontag, who led the team in runs scored (21) and Melissa Bott.
Falcon newcomers include Courtney Cox, Andrea Arney, Adrienne Dick, Paige Berger, Jessica Odell and Hannah Fulk.
One notable difference between the 2009 and 2010 squad will be the loss of Hayley Wiemer, who led the Falcons in slugging percentage (.651), runs batted in(29), on-base percentage (.472), doubles (9), homeruns(9), batters struck out (157) and games started (36). Wiemer has recently been named a BGSU Assistant Softball Coach.
For more news and information regarding the 2010 BGSU Softball squad, check back in at www.BGSUFalcons.com.
