Falcons Swept at Miami

Tuesday, April 5

Oxford, OH

3:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

14-22, 2-5

Miami

21-13, 6-1

Bowling Green

Miami

Katee Hinkle - Oct 18 2015 - BGSU Softball - MJC

Katee Hinkle hit her first collegiate homer in Tuesday's second game

Photo by: BGSU Strategic Communications

April 05, 2016 | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

Hinkle hits her first collegiate homer in nightcap

By: OXFORD, Ohio (BGSU Athletic Communications)

Host Miami University used a big inning to seize control of each game Tuesday (April 5), and the RedHawks went on to sweep the Bowling Green State University softball team in Mid-American Conference action at the Miami Softball Stadium. MU captured wins by the scores of 7-3 and 17-3.

The RedHawks scored five times in the third inning of game one, and put together an eight-run first inning in the second contest.

Senior Molly Holliday had a triple in each game of Tuesday's twinbill, while sophomore Katee Hinkle clubbed her first career home run – a two-run shot to left field – in the second game.

Hinkle became the ninth different BGSU player to homer this season, tying the school record.

GAME ONE STATISTICS: HTML | PDF
GAME TWO STATISTICS: HTML | PDF

But, Miami's Johniann Wahl hit a three-run homer as part of that five-run third frame in the opener, and Rylee Whispel homered twice in the nightcap, including a grand slam in the first inning.

Senior Braiden Dillow and sophomore Kayla Gregory each went 2-for-3 and scored a run in the first game, with Dillow driving in a run as well. Gregory had another hit and drove in a run in the nightcap, while freshman Hannah Giammarino scored two of BG's runs.

BGSU had several baserunners in the early stage of Tuesday's opener. Holliday's first triple came with one out in the first. She was caught in a rundown between third and home when MU pitcher Amber Logemann fielded redshirt sophomore Chelsea Raker's one-hopper back toward the circle. Holliday kept that rundown alive long enough for Raker to advance all the way to third. Logemann, however, got the next hitter to ground out, ending the inning.

In the second, junior Haley Schrock was hit by a pitch, and Dillow's one-out single put two runners aboard. A blooper toward shortstop by sophomore Morgan Evangelista dropped in, but the runners had to hold to see if the ball would be caught, and Schrock was forced at third. The umpires conferred, however, and wound up calling Evangelista out via the infield fly rule, and putting Schrock back on third. A strikeout, though, ended the inning.

The Falcons went in order in the third. Freshman pitcher Kiley Sosby had allowed only one baserunner through the first two innings, on a two-out walk in the first, but the RedHawks broke through in the third. Back-to-back doubles by Jenna Jones and Michaela Schlattmann produced the game's first run, and Wahl's homer made it a 4-0 game. Hailey Reed followed with a homer of her own.

In the fourth, BG again threatened, but did not score. Schrock lined a single to right, and Gregory followed with an opposite-field hit to left. But, a strikeout and a popup to Logemann retired the side.

MU scored another run in the fourth, as Whispel's double plated Kat Lee, and the RedHawks were at it again in the fifth. With one out, a bloop single, and fielder's choice and another single loaded the bases. Whispel picked up another RBI, as her single up the middle scored Anna Geary. BG pitcher Briana Combs struck out Kaitlyn Gliha for the second out, but Hannah Girlie hit a ball toward the gap in right-center. With the hosts up by seven, a hit would have ended the game due to the run rule, but centerfielder Holliday made a nifty running catch just on the edge of the warning track after a long run, and the game continued.

And, it looked like the Falcons would take advantage of the additional innings. In the sixth, the Brown and Orange got three runs on five hits. Raker led off the inning with a line double that was just out of the reach of the leftfielder. A popup and a grounder to short produced two outs, with pinch-runner Alex Sorgi forced to hold at second. But, BG then strung together four-straight singles.

First, Gregory lined a ball off of the glove of relief pitcher Kelsey Fredericks, sending Sorgi to third. Dillow's base hit to center scored Sorgi, with Gregory advancing all the way to third. Evangelista singled up the middle to plate Gregory, and Hinkle singled up the middle, with Dillow moving to third, then scoring when the centerfielder had difficulty coming up with the ball. Finally, Fredericks got a strikeout to end the inning.

Miami put two runners on base in the home half of the sixth, but Geary's grounder to Schrock resulted in a double play as the junior fielded the ball, stepped on the third-base bag to retire Taylor Shuey, then fired to Raker at first for the third out of the inning.

But, Fredericks retired the Falcons in order in the seventh to close out the win.

Game two saw the RedHawks jump on top immediately, with eight runs in the first. Shuey led off with an infield single, and continued on to second when the throw to first went into the BG dugout. A walk was followed by a Wahl RBI single up the middle, and Lauren Anderson's double scored Eryn McCarver. After a strikeout produced the first out, an infield error loaded the bases, and Girlie walked to force in a run. Whispel followed with a liner that cleared the wall in left-center to make it a 7-0 MU lead. Jones then walked, stole second and scored on a double by Shuey.

The Falcons got on the board in the third. After Giammarino walked with one out, Hinkle turned on a Carly Mortensen pitch and drove it over the wall in left field for her first collegiate homer. After a strikeout, Holliday lined a ball to the wall in right-center for a stand-up triple. Raker hit two balls to a similar spot in left, but on both occasions, it was ruled that the ball had landed just foul. Finally, Mortensen got Raker to hit a grounder to third for out number three.

The hosts, however, responded with five runs in the bottom of the third. Whispel homered for the second time in as many at-bats, and the RedHawks used station-to-station softball to slowly but surely add to the lead. A walk, a single and a fielder's choice loaded the bases, and a bloop single by Wahl scored a run. That was followed by a walk, a fielder's choice (with a runner retired at third), Girlie was hit by a pitch to force home another MU run in that inning.

Senior Marisa Shook singled up the middle to begin the fourth, and she got as far as second base, but was stranded there. Then, the RedHawks scored four more times in the bottom of the inning. That frame included doubles by Alyssa Hedric and Shuey, followed by Shannon Holman's long single.

In the top of the fifth, the Falcons got a run, as Giammarino led off with a single and continued to second when the throw toward first went into the BGSU dugout. Then, Hinkle's grounder moved Giammarino to third, and she scored on Gregory's line single through the right side of the infield.

But, the Falcons could come no closer, as Fredericks retired the side and ended the game.

Whispel had five RBI in the nightcap and seven in the doubleheader, while Wahl also had seven total RBI on the day, including four in the second contest. MU pounded out 24 hits on the day.

For the Falcons, Gregory had three hits on the day, while Holliday and Hinkle both had a hit in each game.

The Falcons return home for the next four games, beginning with a three-game series against Central Michigan University this weekend. BGSU is scheduled to meet the Chippewas in a single game Friday (April 8) and a doubleheader on Saturday (April 9) at Meserve Field.