Bowling Green State University Athletics
Wednesday, March 15
Ann Arbor, MI
4:00 PM
Bowling Green State University
at
Michigan
Meredith Miller & the Falcons are scheduled to play five games at Big Ten venues this week
BGSU Braces for Big Ten Bouts
March 14, 2017 | Softball
Falcons scheduled to meet Michigan Wednesday before heading to Indiana this weekend
• The Bowling Green State University softball team, after winning five of seven games during a trip to Kentucky and Mississippi last week, returns to the Midwest for five scheduled games this week. Head coach Sarah Willis and the Falcons will face nationally-ranked Michigan in Wednesday (March 15) action, with first pitch scheduled for 4:00 p.m. at the Wilpon Complex in Ann Arbor, Mich.
(UPDATE: The BGSU-Michigan game has been postponed. Check back to BGSUFalcons.com for updates)
• Then, the Falcons will head to Bloomington, Ind., for four games in the Hoosier Classic. BGSU is scheduled to play UIC and the host school, Indiana, twice each during the two-day tournament which begins Saturday (March 18). All games will be held at Andy Mohr Field.
• The Hoosier Classic marks the sixth tournament in as many weekends for the Falcons.
BGSU SOFTBALL LINKS
NOTES/WEB SITE: BGSU (PDF Notes) | Michigan | UIC | Indiana
TOURNAMENT CENTRAL: Hoosier Classic
Searle Named MAC Player of Week
BGSU 2017 Media Guide
BGSU AT No. 17 MICHIGAN • March 15 • 4:00 p.m. ET • Ann Arbor, Mich.
(live stats will be available – link will be available right here at BGSUFalcons.com on game day)
HOOSIER CLASSIC • March 18-19 • Bloomington, Ind.
(live stats will be available for all games; with live video [fee required] for all games involving IU – all BGSU-related links will be available at BGSUFalcons.com on game day)
Saturday, March 18 (all times Eastern)
Bowling Green vs. UIC, 11:00 a.m.
Bowling Green at Indiana, 1:15 p.m.
UIC at Indiana, 3:30 p.m.
Sunday, March 19
Bowling Green vs. UIC, 11:00 a.m.
UIC at Indiana, 1:15 p.m.
Bowling Green at Indiana, 3:30 p.m.
NOTING THE FALCONS
• The Falcons are 14-12 on the season, after going 5-2 on the team's spring break trip last week. BGSU split a twinbill at Western Kentucky, then went 4-1 at the Ole Miss Classic in Oxford, Miss., winning the last four games.
• For her efforts in those seven games, redshirt junior Aspen Searle was named the Mid-American Conference Player of the Week. The shortstop hit .480, with her four multiple-hit games including two three-hit contests, on the week. She led BGSU in at-bats (25), runs (eight), hits (12), doubles (six), total bases (21), slugging percentage (.840) and on-base pct. (.500). She scored two runs three times on the week, and had at least one extra-base hit in five of the seven games.
• Entering the week, Searle is tied for first in the entire nation in doubles, with 11 two-base hits on the year.
• BGSU is 2-6 in true road games and 12-6 in neutral-site contests this year to date. BG went a perfect 4-0 at the Cleveland State Dome Tournament to open the season (Feb. 11-12), then advanced to the championship game of Charlotte's First Pitch Classic (Feb. 17-19), before dropping five games at the Mardi Gras Invitational in Lafayette, La. (Feb. 23-25) and going 3-2 at Louisville's Red & Black Tournament (March 3-5).
• Redshirt junior Chelsea Raker leads the Falcons in batting, and is hitting .390 on the year. She leads the Falcons in homers (four), RBI (26), total bases (52 – tied for team lead) and slugging percentage (.675) and is second in hits (30), doubles (10), walks (13) and on-base pct. (.473).
• Raker is tied for eighth in the country in doubles.
• Searle is hitting .372, good for second on the team, and she leads the Falcons in hits (32), doubles and total bases (52 – tied with Raker). Searle is second on the Falcons in slugging pct. (.605), runs (17), homers (three) and RBI (20).
• Both Searle and Raker have 10 multiple-hit games, including three three-hit contests. And, both players are ranked among the MAC leaders in several categories.
• Searle leads the MAC in doubles, obviously, while Raker is tied for second. Searle is tied for second in the league in hits and ranks fifth in RBI. Raker is second in the league in RBI, and the two are tied for fourth in total bases.
• Sophomore Alex Sorgi is hitting .325 on the season, and leads the team in walks (19), runs scored (24) and stolen bases (10). Sorgi leads the MAC in walks and ranks second in the league in both runs and steals.
• Freshman Kendyl Wheeler is hitting .321, and ranks second on the team in at-bats. She is tied with Sorgi for third on the team in hits, and leads BG and is tied for second in the MAC with two triples.
• Senior Haley Schrock is hitting .286 and ranks third on the team with eight extra-base hits and 11 RBI. Schrock is tied for first in both the MAC and the nation in sacrifice flies, with five.
• First-year Falcons Logan Everett and Laine Simmons have split time behind the plate, and are batting .225 and .222, respectively.
• Senior Sami Parave is batting .364, having gone 8-for-22 this year. Parave has made 10 appearances this year, and has started six of the last eight contests.
• In the circle, four different Falcons have made at least four starts, and all four have thrown at least one complete game. Sophomore Meredith Miller leads the team in wins and earned-run average. She is currently 7-1 with a 2.57 ERA. Miller also paces the Falcons in appearances (13 – tied for team lead), complete games (five – also tied for team lead), innings pitched (60) and strikeouts (50).
• Sophomore Kiley Sosby is 3-3 with a 3.13 ERA. Sosby is allowing opponents to hit just .151 against her this season to date.
• Miller is ranked sixth in the MAC in strikeouts, seventh in opponent batting average (.216) and 10th in ERA. Sosby is second in the conference in opponent BA.
Sophomore Brooke Parker is 3-5 with a save and a 3.64 ERA. Parker, after throwing three complete games in a three-day span in Louisville, had two wins and a save in BG's final three games in the Ole Miss Classic.
• Senior Briana Combs is 1-3 with a 6.56 ERA. She has made six appearances, starting four, this season to date.
• The Falcons have outscored opponents, 110-98, this year. BG has 193 hits to the foes' 154, with a team batting average of .283 to the opponents' .242.
• Five players – Raker, Schrock, Searle, Sorgi and sophomore Hannah Giammarino – have started all 26 games, while Wheeler has made 24 starts and juniors Katee Hinkle and Kayla Gregory 17 and 16, respectively. Everett and Simmons have each started 15 times.
• The Falcons stole a total of 23 bases in 28 attempts last year. This season, through 26 games, BG has 26 steals in 30 attempts. No BG player stole more than seven bases a year ago, but Sorgi is a perfect 10-for-10 this season to date.
• Parave has already matched her career-best totals in runs (six), hits (eight), RBI (three) and total bases (eight) this season. She had those exact numbers in each of the four categories in 2014.
• Sorgi, primarily a pinch-runner last year, was hitless in eight at-bats as a freshman in 2016. After going 0-for-3 in the 2017 season opener, she then put together a 10-game hitting streak, the longest by a Falcon in at least four years. Sorgi hit .467 (14-for-30) in those 10 games. More recently, Sorgi has reached base in each of the last 12 games entering this week's action.
• BGSU had a double-digit hit total nine times during the entire 2016 campaign (54 games), but BG has had 10 or more hits seven times this season to date.
• Head coach Sarah Willis and her staff – assistant coaches Katie Reiff and Lauren Gambone, volunteer assistant Lyndsey Clark and alumnae coordinator Kolleen Kopchak – welcomed back 12 letterwinners, including five starters, from a year ago.
• BGSU was picked to finish sixth in the Mid-American Conference East Division according to the MAC's preseason coaches' poll.
A QUICK LOOK AT THE OPPONENTS
• Michigan is 14-7-1 on the season, heading into Wednesday's scheduled game with the Falcons. The Wolverines, ranked No. 17 in the nation last week, went 2-1 at the John Cropp Classic over the weekend, beating Evansville and Kent State before seeing a four-game winning streak snapped by host Kentucky.
• Kelly Christner is hitting .476 with an on-base percentage of .588. She leads the Wolverines in both categories along with walks (16), runs (21) and RBI (20). Natalie Peters and Abby Ramirez are hitting .400 and .373, respectively.
• Megan Betsa is 6-5 with a 1.99 ERA and 134 strikeouts in 77 1/3 innings of work, while Tera Blanco is 8-2 with a 2.08 ERA. Blanco was named Big Ten Pitcher of the Week on Monday.
• Head coach Carol Hutchins, the winningest coach in NCAA softball history, welcomed back 17 letterwinners, including three All-Americans (Betsa, Blanco and Christner) from last year's team. The 2016 Wolverines went 52-7 overall, won the Big Ten Conference title and advanced to the NCAA Women's College World Series for the second-straight season.
• UIC will take a 10-12 record into Saturday morning's game with BGSU. The Flames went 1-3 at last weekend's OU Tournament in Norman, Okla., splitting a pair of one-run games with Omaha and dropping two contests to the nationally-ranked host, Oklahoma.
• Lexi Watts is hitting .397 to lead the team, while Kayla Wedl is batting .308. Wedl has team-leading totals of 12 runs scored and 11 RBI, while Watts has 27 hits on the year. In the circle, Karissa Frazier has a 3-6 record and a 1.91 ERA, while Elaine Heflin is 5-4 with an ERA of 2.30 and a team-high 54 strikeouts. Heflin has eight complete games in 10 starts.
• First-year head coach Lynn Curylo inherited 14 letterwinners from last year's club that went 33-18 overall and won the Horizon League with an 18-5 conference mark.
• Indiana is 11-13 heading into the Hoosiers' Saturday game vs. BGSU. IU went a perfect 5-0 in a tournament at Memphis last weekend, with run-rule victories in each of the final three games.
• Aimilla McDonough is hitting .442 with eight extra-base hits this season to date, while Bella Norton is batting .300 for the Hoosiers. Emily Goodin is 7-4 with a 3.16 ERA this season, while Tara Trainer is 4-7 with 89 strikeouts and a 3.50 ERA. Trainer has made 15 starts and Goodin five.
• Head coach Michelle Gardner – a former assistant coach at BGSU – welcomed back 14 letterwinners, including seven positional starters, from last year's team that went 29-25 overall and 10-13 in the Big Ten Conference.
THE SERIES
• BGSU trails Michigan, 30-4, in the all-time series between the teams. The most recent meeting was an 8-1 Wolverine win two years ago (March 18, 2015) in Ann Arbor. BG's last victory vs. Michigan was a 3-1 decision in 2003 at what is now known as Meserve Field.
• The Falcons and UIC are tied, 1-1, in that series. BG picked up a win in 1986, while UIC's victory was a 2-1, eight-inning decision in the 2004 NCAA Regionals in Ann Arbor, Mich.
• BGSU trails Indiana, 8-0, in that series, with six road losses and a pair of neutral-site setbacks. The Hoosiers downed the Falcons by scores of 3-2 and 5-2 in Bloomington during the 2015 season.
COMING UP...
• Following the Hoosier Classic, the Falcons begin the MAC schedule with a three-game series at Central Michigan next Friday and Saturday (March 24-25).
(UPDATE: The BGSU-Michigan game has been postponed. Check back to BGSUFalcons.com for updates)
• Then, the Falcons will head to Bloomington, Ind., for four games in the Hoosier Classic. BGSU is scheduled to play UIC and the host school, Indiana, twice each during the two-day tournament which begins Saturday (March 18). All games will be held at Andy Mohr Field.
• The Hoosier Classic marks the sixth tournament in as many weekends for the Falcons.
BGSU SOFTBALL LINKS
NOTES/WEB SITE: BGSU (PDF Notes) | Michigan | UIC | Indiana
TOURNAMENT CENTRAL: Hoosier Classic
Searle Named MAC Player of Week
BGSU 2017 Media Guide
BGSU AT No. 17 MICHIGAN • March 15 • 4:00 p.m. ET • Ann Arbor, Mich.
(live stats will be available – link will be available right here at BGSUFalcons.com on game day)
HOOSIER CLASSIC • March 18-19 • Bloomington, Ind.
(live stats will be available for all games; with live video [fee required] for all games involving IU – all BGSU-related links will be available at BGSUFalcons.com on game day)
Saturday, March 18 (all times Eastern)
Bowling Green vs. UIC, 11:00 a.m.
Bowling Green at Indiana, 1:15 p.m.
UIC at Indiana, 3:30 p.m.
Sunday, March 19
Bowling Green vs. UIC, 11:00 a.m.
UIC at Indiana, 1:15 p.m.
Bowling Green at Indiana, 3:30 p.m.
NOTING THE FALCONS
• The Falcons are 14-12 on the season, after going 5-2 on the team's spring break trip last week. BGSU split a twinbill at Western Kentucky, then went 4-1 at the Ole Miss Classic in Oxford, Miss., winning the last four games.
• For her efforts in those seven games, redshirt junior Aspen Searle was named the Mid-American Conference Player of the Week. The shortstop hit .480, with her four multiple-hit games including two three-hit contests, on the week. She led BGSU in at-bats (25), runs (eight), hits (12), doubles (six), total bases (21), slugging percentage (.840) and on-base pct. (.500). She scored two runs three times on the week, and had at least one extra-base hit in five of the seven games.
• Entering the week, Searle is tied for first in the entire nation in doubles, with 11 two-base hits on the year.
• BGSU is 2-6 in true road games and 12-6 in neutral-site contests this year to date. BG went a perfect 4-0 at the Cleveland State Dome Tournament to open the season (Feb. 11-12), then advanced to the championship game of Charlotte's First Pitch Classic (Feb. 17-19), before dropping five games at the Mardi Gras Invitational in Lafayette, La. (Feb. 23-25) and going 3-2 at Louisville's Red & Black Tournament (March 3-5).
• Redshirt junior Chelsea Raker leads the Falcons in batting, and is hitting .390 on the year. She leads the Falcons in homers (four), RBI (26), total bases (52 – tied for team lead) and slugging percentage (.675) and is second in hits (30), doubles (10), walks (13) and on-base pct. (.473).
• Raker is tied for eighth in the country in doubles.
• Searle is hitting .372, good for second on the team, and she leads the Falcons in hits (32), doubles and total bases (52 – tied with Raker). Searle is second on the Falcons in slugging pct. (.605), runs (17), homers (three) and RBI (20).
• Both Searle and Raker have 10 multiple-hit games, including three three-hit contests. And, both players are ranked among the MAC leaders in several categories.
• Searle leads the MAC in doubles, obviously, while Raker is tied for second. Searle is tied for second in the league in hits and ranks fifth in RBI. Raker is second in the league in RBI, and the two are tied for fourth in total bases.
• Sophomore Alex Sorgi is hitting .325 on the season, and leads the team in walks (19), runs scored (24) and stolen bases (10). Sorgi leads the MAC in walks and ranks second in the league in both runs and steals.
• Freshman Kendyl Wheeler is hitting .321, and ranks second on the team in at-bats. She is tied with Sorgi for third on the team in hits, and leads BG and is tied for second in the MAC with two triples.
• Senior Haley Schrock is hitting .286 and ranks third on the team with eight extra-base hits and 11 RBI. Schrock is tied for first in both the MAC and the nation in sacrifice flies, with five.
• First-year Falcons Logan Everett and Laine Simmons have split time behind the plate, and are batting .225 and .222, respectively.
• Senior Sami Parave is batting .364, having gone 8-for-22 this year. Parave has made 10 appearances this year, and has started six of the last eight contests.
• In the circle, four different Falcons have made at least four starts, and all four have thrown at least one complete game. Sophomore Meredith Miller leads the team in wins and earned-run average. She is currently 7-1 with a 2.57 ERA. Miller also paces the Falcons in appearances (13 – tied for team lead), complete games (five – also tied for team lead), innings pitched (60) and strikeouts (50).
• Sophomore Kiley Sosby is 3-3 with a 3.13 ERA. Sosby is allowing opponents to hit just .151 against her this season to date.
• Miller is ranked sixth in the MAC in strikeouts, seventh in opponent batting average (.216) and 10th in ERA. Sosby is second in the conference in opponent BA.
Sophomore Brooke Parker is 3-5 with a save and a 3.64 ERA. Parker, after throwing three complete games in a three-day span in Louisville, had two wins and a save in BG's final three games in the Ole Miss Classic.
• Senior Briana Combs is 1-3 with a 6.56 ERA. She has made six appearances, starting four, this season to date.
• The Falcons have outscored opponents, 110-98, this year. BG has 193 hits to the foes' 154, with a team batting average of .283 to the opponents' .242.
• Five players – Raker, Schrock, Searle, Sorgi and sophomore Hannah Giammarino – have started all 26 games, while Wheeler has made 24 starts and juniors Katee Hinkle and Kayla Gregory 17 and 16, respectively. Everett and Simmons have each started 15 times.
• The Falcons stole a total of 23 bases in 28 attempts last year. This season, through 26 games, BG has 26 steals in 30 attempts. No BG player stole more than seven bases a year ago, but Sorgi is a perfect 10-for-10 this season to date.
• Parave has already matched her career-best totals in runs (six), hits (eight), RBI (three) and total bases (eight) this season. She had those exact numbers in each of the four categories in 2014.
• Sorgi, primarily a pinch-runner last year, was hitless in eight at-bats as a freshman in 2016. After going 0-for-3 in the 2017 season opener, she then put together a 10-game hitting streak, the longest by a Falcon in at least four years. Sorgi hit .467 (14-for-30) in those 10 games. More recently, Sorgi has reached base in each of the last 12 games entering this week's action.
• BGSU had a double-digit hit total nine times during the entire 2016 campaign (54 games), but BG has had 10 or more hits seven times this season to date.
• Head coach Sarah Willis and her staff – assistant coaches Katie Reiff and Lauren Gambone, volunteer assistant Lyndsey Clark and alumnae coordinator Kolleen Kopchak – welcomed back 12 letterwinners, including five starters, from a year ago.
• BGSU was picked to finish sixth in the Mid-American Conference East Division according to the MAC's preseason coaches' poll.
A QUICK LOOK AT THE OPPONENTS
• Michigan is 14-7-1 on the season, heading into Wednesday's scheduled game with the Falcons. The Wolverines, ranked No. 17 in the nation last week, went 2-1 at the John Cropp Classic over the weekend, beating Evansville and Kent State before seeing a four-game winning streak snapped by host Kentucky.
• Kelly Christner is hitting .476 with an on-base percentage of .588. She leads the Wolverines in both categories along with walks (16), runs (21) and RBI (20). Natalie Peters and Abby Ramirez are hitting .400 and .373, respectively.
• Megan Betsa is 6-5 with a 1.99 ERA and 134 strikeouts in 77 1/3 innings of work, while Tera Blanco is 8-2 with a 2.08 ERA. Blanco was named Big Ten Pitcher of the Week on Monday.
• Head coach Carol Hutchins, the winningest coach in NCAA softball history, welcomed back 17 letterwinners, including three All-Americans (Betsa, Blanco and Christner) from last year's team. The 2016 Wolverines went 52-7 overall, won the Big Ten Conference title and advanced to the NCAA Women's College World Series for the second-straight season.
• UIC will take a 10-12 record into Saturday morning's game with BGSU. The Flames went 1-3 at last weekend's OU Tournament in Norman, Okla., splitting a pair of one-run games with Omaha and dropping two contests to the nationally-ranked host, Oklahoma.
• Lexi Watts is hitting .397 to lead the team, while Kayla Wedl is batting .308. Wedl has team-leading totals of 12 runs scored and 11 RBI, while Watts has 27 hits on the year. In the circle, Karissa Frazier has a 3-6 record and a 1.91 ERA, while Elaine Heflin is 5-4 with an ERA of 2.30 and a team-high 54 strikeouts. Heflin has eight complete games in 10 starts.
• First-year head coach Lynn Curylo inherited 14 letterwinners from last year's club that went 33-18 overall and won the Horizon League with an 18-5 conference mark.
• Indiana is 11-13 heading into the Hoosiers' Saturday game vs. BGSU. IU went a perfect 5-0 in a tournament at Memphis last weekend, with run-rule victories in each of the final three games.
• Aimilla McDonough is hitting .442 with eight extra-base hits this season to date, while Bella Norton is batting .300 for the Hoosiers. Emily Goodin is 7-4 with a 3.16 ERA this season, while Tara Trainer is 4-7 with 89 strikeouts and a 3.50 ERA. Trainer has made 15 starts and Goodin five.
• Head coach Michelle Gardner – a former assistant coach at BGSU – welcomed back 14 letterwinners, including seven positional starters, from last year's team that went 29-25 overall and 10-13 in the Big Ten Conference.
THE SERIES
• BGSU trails Michigan, 30-4, in the all-time series between the teams. The most recent meeting was an 8-1 Wolverine win two years ago (March 18, 2015) in Ann Arbor. BG's last victory vs. Michigan was a 3-1 decision in 2003 at what is now known as Meserve Field.
• The Falcons and UIC are tied, 1-1, in that series. BG picked up a win in 1986, while UIC's victory was a 2-1, eight-inning decision in the 2004 NCAA Regionals in Ann Arbor, Mich.
• BGSU trails Indiana, 8-0, in that series, with six road losses and a pair of neutral-site setbacks. The Hoosiers downed the Falcons by scores of 3-2 and 5-2 in Bloomington during the 2015 season.
COMING UP...
• Following the Hoosier Classic, the Falcons begin the MAC schedule with a three-game series at Central Michigan next Friday and Saturday (March 24-25).
Players Mentioned
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P/Util.
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OF
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