No. 25 Notre Dame Sweeps Falcons

Wednesday, April 28

Notre Dame, Ind.

3:00 p.m.

Bowling Green State University

#25 Notre Dame

Photo by: Doug Sampson

April 28, 2010 | Softball

By: by Jason Knavel, Assistant Athletic Director for Athletic Communications

Game 1 Boxscore - Notre Dame 4, Bowling Green 1
Game 2 Boxscore - Notre Dame 10, Bowling Green 5

Notre Dame, Ind. – The Notre Dame softball team entered Wednesday's doubleheader with Bowling Green as the top hitting team in the country with a .342 team batting average. The Falcons were unable to slow down the Irish bats as Notre Dame rapped 20 hits and sweep BGSU 4-1 and 10-5.

If the offense was not enough, Notre Dame ranks fifth in NCAA Division I in fielding percentage and the pitcher in the opening game, Jody Valdivia, leads the country in wins with a 30-4 record to start the day and is second with 15 shutouts. With a win Wednesday, Valdivia would break the Irish's single season record for wins.

Sure enough, she held Bowling Green to just two hits in the opener and while Melissa Bott matched her early, eventually Notre Dame broke through. Bott wriggled out of a jam in the second inning after she walked the first two batters of the inning but she forced Kristina Wright to pop out to first and Brianna Jorgensborg to fly out to center to end the threat.

The game was scoreless until Notre Dame's Heather Johnson had a two-out RBI single to put the Irish on top. In the top of the fourth, freshman Hannah Fulk doubled down the line for Bowling Green's first hit of the game and she moved to third on a Rachel Proehl sacrifice bunt. However, she was stranded there and the Falcons were unable to tie the score.

Notre Dame added two runs in the fifth and another in the sixth, giving Valdivia a shot at her 16th shutout of the season into the seventh. But senior Susan Sontag hit a one out solo homer over the centerfield fence to break up the shutout.

Game two started better for Bowling Green as the Falcons scored twice in the top of the first. Fulk led off the game with a walk and stole second before Karmen Coffey singled up the middle. Paige Berger plated a run with an RBI groundout and Sontag followed with a two-out double to score another run.

But Notre Dame's bats got hot in the early going of game two and the Irish quickly turned the game around by scoring three runs in each of the first two innings. The Falcons came back with two more runs in the third on RBI singles from Missy Bowman and Melissa West to make it 6-4.

Notre Dame continued the offensive onslaught with two more runs in the fourth and two in the sixth. In between, Bott had an RBI double in the top of the fifth but it was not enough as the Irish came away with the 10-5 win.

Sontag went 3-for-6 on the day with three runs and two RBI. Coffey and Bowman added two hits each as the Falcons posted 11 hits in game two.

Notre Dame improves to 40-9 on the year and Bowling Green falls to 10-22. The Falcons will be on the road this weekend as Bowling Green plays a doubleheader at Akron Friday at 1 p.m. before Saturday and Sunday games at Ohio. Saturday's contest starts at 2 p.m. and Sunday's opening pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m.