Postseason Fate To Be Determined This Weekend

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Final Weekend Will Decide Postseason
Bowling Green (11-25, 7-11 MAC) heads into the final weekend of Mid-American Conference play with the team's postseason fate still unknown. With eight MAC teams advancing to the conference tournament, the Falcons are tied with Akron for seventh place. However, Bowling Green sits just one game in front of three other teams, including Friday's opponent Buffalo (18-31, 6-12 MAC). A sweep of the Bulls would do wonders for Bowling Green's hopes but a split or doubleheader loss would be damaging. The Falcons will end the weekend by playing MAC East leader Kent State (27-18, 14-4 MAC) Saturday and Sunday. Bowling Green is 15-4 all-time against Buffalo and 42-50-1 all-time against Kent State. The Falcons split a pair of games with both teams a year ago.

Scouting the Competition
Despite being just 18-31 overall and 6-12 in MAC play, Buffalo has one of the best weekend schedules of the five teams battling for a playoff spot. The Bulls host Bowling Green and then finish with Toledo, a team that is just 4-14 in league play. With a 3-1 weekend, Buffalo could leapfrog into one of the final MAC Tournament spots.

For the Bulls to do that, though, they will need to hit better than their season average of .233, along with a league-worst .312 slugging percentage. Buffalo has just 15 homers on the year and only 62 extra-base hits. Kristin Waldron is the spark offensively, hitting a team-best .331 with eight doubles and five triples. The Bulls are dangerous when they get on the basepaths as Ashley Bertot, Taylor Franich, and Kristen Gallipani each have at least 15 stolen bases.

Sharon Barr and Terese Diaz share time on the mound. Barr has appeared in 42 of the team's 49 games with a 3.66 ERA. Diaz has a similar 3.65 ERA and is fourth in the MAC with 7.24 strikeouts per game.

Buffalo Head Coach Jennifer Teague is in her second season with the Bulls, leading the team to a 25-27 record a year ago, which tied for the program record for wins since moving to Division I.

After facing Buffalo, the Falcons will play at Kent State Saturday and Sunday. The Golden Flashes are 27-19 overall and lead the MAC East with a 14-4 conference record.

Lauren Grimes ranks second in the MAC with a .404 batting average and she has added 11 home runs, third-best in the league. In 18 conference games, Kent State ranks just ninth with a .260 team batting average but a league-best 20 homers have helped the team to produce enough offense to win consistently.

Kent State really thrives on the mound and the Golden Flashes' 2.07 ERA in league games ranks third in the MAC. Kylie Reynolds has pitched 102 of Kent's 125 innings in MAC games and is 13-3 with a 1.92 ERA. She has struck out a whopping 134 batters in those 102 innings. Overall, she is 21-14 with a 2.24 ERA and 298 strikeouts in 219 innings.

Head Coach Karen Linder is in her 14th season at Kent State and 27th leading a program. She is 402-316 with the Golden Flashes and 655-516-1 overall.

Last Time Out
Bowling Green went 1-3 last weekend, splitting a doubleheader with Akron and losing twice to Ohio. The Falcons posted 21 hits gain a split with the Zips, winning 9-7 in the doubleheader nightcap after losing the opener 2-0. Bowling Green came back the next day to post 13 hits in the opener against Ohio but lost 10-9 in eight innings. Paige Berger hit her school-record 12th home run of the year to put Bowling Green up 9-8 in the top of the eighth but Ohio scored two in the bottom half of the inning for the win. The Bobcats completed the sweep with a 9-1 victory in game two.

In Or Out?
Heading into the final weekend of the season, five teams are battling for the final two spots in the MAC Tournament. Akron and Bowling Green have the inside track with a conference record of 7-11, but Buffalo, Eastern Michigan, and Western Michigan are all a game back at 6-12. Based solely on the records of their opponents, Akron has the toughest schedule this weekend, followed by Bowling Green, Western Michigan, Eastern Michigan, and Buffalo. With Eastern Michigan and Buffalo both being at home, those two teams have an opportunity to make some noise. Here's how the final weekend shapes up for each of the five teams in the hunt:

Bowling Green - at 6-12 Buffalo; at 14-4 Kent State
Akron - at 14-4 Ball State; at 10-8 Miami
Buffalo - vs. 7-11 Bowling Green; vs. 4-14 Toledo
Eastern Michigan - vs. 6-12 W. Michigan; vs. 10-8 N. Illinois
Western Michigan - at 6-12 E. Michigan; at 11-7 C. Michigan

Fresh Faces At The Dish
For much of the season, Bowling Green's offense has revolved around freshmen. In fact, 19 of the team's 28 homers have come from players who are putting on a collegiate uniform for the first time this year. Paige Berger leads the way with 12 bombs, but Hannah Fulk has added four, Adrienne Dick has two, and Andrea Arney has one. Of the team's 68 extra base hits, 37 have come from freshmen.

Speed Kills
Senior Karmen Coffey stole her 15th base of the year Wednesday at Notre Dame. In fact, she has done that in just 16 attempts. Among MAC players with at least 15 stolen bases, only Miami's Alicia Hogl (16-of-17), Toledo's Kate Ricchio (16-of-16), and Buffalo's Ashley Bertot (20-of-21) have a better stolen base percentage.

Records Are Made To Be Broken
With a home run in the top of the eighth inning Saturday at Ohio, Paige Berger became the program's all-time single season home run leader with 12. But she has an opportunity to finish among the all-time greats in a number of other categories as well. Her .800 slugging percentage is on pace to shatter the program record of .746 and she has a chance to move into the top 10 in batting average, RBI and walks.

Leader Of The MAC
Paige Berger began her assault on the record books from the opening pitch of the 2010 season and once conference play started, she only got better. In conference games only, Berger now leads the MAC in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, home runs, and RBI. She has put together a season like no other offensive player in the league.

Fulk's Not Far Behind
Freshman Hannah Fulk also has a chance to work her way into the record book as she is on pace to finish in the top 15 single season leaders in four statistical categories. With 11 doubles, four homers, a .584 slugging percentage, and a team-best 20 walks, she could rank among the best Falcons ever in each of those stats. Her slugging percentage is currently 10th in program history and she is in the top 15 in single-season walks and batting average.

Nice Of You To Stop By
After playing the first 15 games of the season on the road, the Bowling Green softball team finally settled down at Meserve Softball Field for the home opener on April 2. Over the next 16 days, the Falcons played 10 home games, winning six times. But April 18 was the last chance for Falcon fans to see the softball team play at home as the team hit the road for the final 14 games of the regular season, including 12 MAC road games in a row to conclude the year.

The Awards Keep Piling Up
Zada Lines and Paige Berger swept the weekly MAC awards on April 13, being named Pitcher and Player of the Week. Lines went 2-0 against Toledo and popped her first homer of the season. Berger hit .750 during the series, including a home run to help the Falcons to the sweep.

Earlier in the season, Melissa Bott was named MAC Scholar-Athlete of the Week for her performance from March 29 through April 4. She had a 0.93 ERA in 15 innings that week, going 2-1 with 10 scoreless innings on the mound in the team's sweep of Central Michigan. She has a 3.75 grade point average in middle childhood education.

Even earlier than that, freshman Hannah Fulk was named MAC Player of the Week on Feb. 23 after leading the team to a 2-2 record at the Red and Black Classic in Athena, Ga. She had three doubles and her first career home run on the week to bat .500 with an 1.100 slugging percentage. She also went 2-for-2 on the basepaths and walked five times.

Salsburg Fronts the Falcons for a Fourth Season
Shannon Salsburg returns to the helm of the BGSU softball team for a fourth season. In her previous three seasons with the Falcons, Salsburg has racked up an overall record of 65-69 (.485) and an impressive overall Mid-American Conference record of 36-25 (.590). Salsburg's record in the MAC makes her the second winningest head coach in the conference. In 2009, Salsburg led the Falcons to an overall record of 13-33 and 8-14 in the the MAC. The Falcons found success against non-conference rivals including North Florida, Bradley, Texas-Arlington and Purdue, as well as MAC opponenets, Toledo, Akron, Ohio, Buffalo, Kent, Central Michigan and Eastern Michigan. Lani Shaffer will be returning as assistant coach for her third season with Falcon softball program.

Falcons Selected Sixth
The Mid-American Conference preseason poll was released Wed., Feb. 3, 2010, and the Falcons were picked to finish sixth in the conference, as chosen by the league's head coaches. In the East, the Miami Redhawks, who took first at the 2009 MAC Championships, were predicted to finish first for the second year in a row. Kent, Ohio, Akron and Buffalo followed in second, third, fourth and fifth, respectively.

From the Batter's Box to the Coaches Box
Hayley Wiemer joined Salsburg and Shaffer as the third member of the coaching staff in fall 2009 and will work primarily as a pitching coach but will assist with all aspects of the team. Wiemer graduated from BGSU in 2009 and is one of the most decorated softball players in program history. As a player, Wiemer secured spots on the BGSU careers list and racked up a number of honors and awards. On her career, Wiemer ranks first in homeruns (32), slugging percentage (.600) and walks (121); second in strikeouts (557) and appearances (140); and third in RBI's (109), wins (53), strikeouts (20) and saves (7). She has been slected as an ESPN the Magazine Academic All-American (2008), ESPN the Magazine Academic ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District (2007, 2008, 2009), All-MAC First-Team (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009), Academic All-MAC (2007, 2008, 2009), MAC All-Tournament Team (2007, 2008), MAC East Player of the Week, MAC East Pitcher of the Week, MAC Female Scholar Athlete of the Week and Lowe's Senior CLASS Candidate (2009).

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