Falcons Eliminated From MAC Tournament With 4-1 Loss To Ohio

Thursday, May 13

Akron, Ohio

11:00 a.m.

Bowling Green State University

Ohio

Photo by: Doug Sampson

May 13, 2010 | Softball

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

Boxscore

Akron, Ohio – The Bowling Green softball team left nine runners stranded as the Falcons were eliminated from the Mid-American Conference Softball Tournament Thursday with a 4-1 loss to Ohio. The Falcons' season comes to a close with a record of 13-29 overall and 9-13 in MAC play, tying for seventh in the final league standings.

BGSU senior Susan Sontag hit her 19th career home run in her final collegiate game but that blast accounted for the only Falcon run of the game. The Orange and Brown picked up five hits, two walks, and was helped by four Ohio errors but struggled to get clutch hits from the first inning.

The Falcons looked sharp early as Hannah Fulk took the first pitch and punched it through the hole on the right side of the infield for a single. Rachel Proehl laid down a sacrifice bunt but Ohio pitcher Emily Wethington threw it away and BGSU had runners on second and third with nobody out. To her credit, Wethington shook off the error and got Karmen Coffey to foul out to catcher, Paige Berger to strike out, and Sontag to pop out to second to end the threat.

Neither team scored until the top of the fourth when Ohio's Shalene Petrich manufactured a run. She singled, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt, and stole third base. Catcher Adrienne Dick's throw bounced into left field, allowing Petrich to score. But the Bobcats followed with another run on back-to-back hits to make it 2-0.

Sontag then provided her blast in the bottom of the fourth to make it 2-1 and the Falcons almost made it more but left two runners on.

Ohio added a run in the top of the fifth that made it 3-1 and Bowling Green left two more runners stranded in the bottom half of the inning. Proehl reached on a fielding error and Berger walked but Sontag struck out looking to end the inning.

In the bottom of the sixth, Bowling Green threatened again as Melissa West had a two-out walk and pinch-hitter Haleigh Bielstein singled to right field to move West to third. But Fulk grounded out to end the final Falcon rally of the contest. Ohio added one more run in the seventh but retired Bowling Green in order in the bottom half of the frame.

Despite the 13-29 final record, Bowling Green exceeded preseason expectations when the Falcons were picked by the coaches to finish last of six teams in the MAC East. In fact, the team tied Buffalo for fourth in the division and tied for seventh overall, earning the No. 8 seed for the MAC Tournament.