Ohio Scores Early, Tops BGSU on Senior Day

Saturday, May 7

Bowling Green, OH

11:00 AM

Bowling Green State University

18-36, 6-17

Ohio

33-21, 14-9

Ohio

Bowling Green

Senior Day 2016 - Cobbs Dillow Holliday Scott Shook Turski

Photo by: BGSU Strategic Communications

May 07, 2016 | Softball

Box Score

Marisa Shook homers to dead center in her final at-bat

By: BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSU Athletic Communications)

Ohio University scored three times in both the first and third innings, taking an early lead en route to a 9-3 win over the Bowling Green State University softball team Saturday morning/afternoon (May 7). The Mid-American Conference game was held at Meserve Field.

Saturday was Senior Day for the Falcons, as the six seniors in the program -- Marina Cobbs, Braiden Dillow, Molly Holliday, Chandler Scott, Marisa Shook and Katie Turski -- were recognized in ceremonies prior to the game. All six seniors saw action in Saturday's contest.

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SENIOR DAY PHOTO GALLERY: BGSU Athletics

In the final at-bat of her collegiate career, Shook homered to dead center. She led the Falcons with nine round-trippers and 21 extra-base hits this season.

After combining for a total of just 15 hits during Friday's doubleheader, the Falcons and Bobcats had 19 total hits on Saturday. Shook and junior Haley Schrock each had two hits to pace a seven-hit BGSU attack. Shook was 2-for-3 with a run scored and two runs batted in, while Schrock was 2-for-4 and scored a run in Saturday's contest.

For Ohio, Danielle Stiene picked up the win in the circle, and also was 3-for-3 at the plate. Madison Claytor and Casie Hutchinson each had two hits, while Morgan Geno had a three-run homer for the visitors.

"Almost every team is going to end the season with a loss, and today is certainly a bittersweet day," said Falcon head coach Sarah Willis. "We weren't hoping to have this type of a season, and we didn't want it to end as soon as we did, but we appreciate everything the senior class has done during their time at BGSU."

Dillow retired the first batter of the game, but Jamie Wren drew a walk and Stiene singled through the left side of the infield before Geno homered to center to give the visitors a three-run lead.

Schrock singled in the first, and sophomore Morgan Evangelista beat out a grounder deep in the hole at shortstop in the second, but Stiene got inning-ending infield bouncers in each frame.

Dillow set down the Bobcats in order in the second, but Stiene doubled with one out in the third, and after a Geno walk, Hutchinson reached on an infield error that plated a run. Mikayla Cooper singled to load the bases, and a hit by Deanna Cole scored a run. It became a 6-0 game when Claytor hit a sacrifice fly to left.

The Falcons got a pair of runs back in the bottom of the third. The first two batters were retired, but Schrock singled to left-center, redshirt sophomore Chelsea Raker lined a ball to center for another single, and Shook's drive was just out of the reach of lunging shortstop Amanda Dalton for still another base hit.

Schrock came around to score on Shook's hit, and when first baseman Hutchinson cut off the throw from the outfield and threw wildly toward third in an attempt to get Raker, the ball got away and Raker scored as well.

Shook wound up at third on the play, and the next hitter, Dillow, very nearly brought her home. Dillow lined a ball down the right-field line that landed inches foul, and Stiene finally got her BG counterpart to hit a fly ball to left.

Ohio scored again in the fourth on a Wren double and a single by Stiene, before junior Briana Combs entered the circle and got the final two outs of the inning.

In the fifth, Combs got Cole to hit a grounder back to the circle for out number one, and after Claytor reached on a seeing-eye grounder through the left side of the infield, another grounder to Combs produced the second out. Then, Turski came on and got Taylor Saxton, Ohio's leading hitter, to hit a weak grounder to third that retired the side.

The Bobcats scored two more runs in the sixth. Sloan Walker led off by hitting a ball back up the middle. Falcon freshman pitcher Brooke Parker got a glove on the ball, and it deflected toward Kayla Gregory, but the sophomore second baseman had no play. Stiene drew a walk, and on Geno's grounder, everyone was safe as Walker beat the throw to third.

With the bases loaded, Hutchinson singled to right-center to plate a pair of runs. Cooper hit a soft liner to Gregory, who flipped to Raker to double up Hutchinson, and Cole grounded out to pitcher, but the 'Cats had a 9-2 lead.

But, on the first pitch of the next half-inning, Shook crushed a Stiene offering to dead center for a solo homer, in what would prove to be the final at-bat of her career. Dillow, in her last at-bat, beat out a grounder to short for a base hit, and Gregory walked to put a pair of runners aboard.

Geno replaced Stiene in the circle, however, and got three outs, albeit with help from her defense. The first hitter she faced, Evangelista, lined a ball up the middle, but second baseman Saxton made a nifty play to both get to the ball and flip it to shortstop Dalton to force Gregory at second. Then, a pair of infield grounders got Geno and the Bobcats out of the inning.

Parker worked a scoreless seventh for the Brown and Orange, but Geno retired the side in order in the bottom of the inning.

Stiene got the win, allowing two earned runs and all seven BG hits in five-plus innings of work. Geno did not allow a baserunner in her two innings of relief. Dillow, the first of four Falcon pitchers, took the loss.

"We certainly didn't reach a lot of our goals for this season," said Willis. "But, we talk about the process on a day-to-day basis. It's going to take time for that process to happen. I know we're going to get there, but it doesn't happen overnight.

"We have a good group of individuals coming back, and we greatly appreciate the seniors helping us revamp, restart and expand our expectations. When we start having success down the road, they can take heart in the fact that they helped the process get underway, and we greatly appreciate their leadership and their contributions."

Willis and the Falcons have 17 players with at least one more year of eiligibility on the 2016 roster.