Falcons Head to CMU for Three-Game Weekend Series

Friday, March 24

Mount Pleasant, MI

12:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

Central Michigan

Katee Hinkle v IPFW - March 23 2016 - Ruben Kappler photo

Katee Hinkle & the Falcons begin MAC play this weekend

Photo by: Ruben Kappler, BGSU Marketing & Communications

March 23, 2017 | Softball

BGSU ventures to Mount Pleasant to kick off conference schedule

By: BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSU Athletic Communications)

• The Bowling Green State University softball team heads to Mount Pleasant, Mich., to open the Mid-American Conference portion of the schedule this weekend. Head coach Sarah Willis and the Falcons will face Central Michigan University in a three-game series at Margo Jonker Stadium.

• ~~Friday's game is scheduled to begin at 3:00 p.m., with the first game of Saturday's twinbill slated for a 1:00 p.m. start.~~ (NOTE: As of Thursday afternoon, the schedule has been changed. The teams are now slated to play a Friday doubleheader beginning at 12:00 p.m., and a Saturday single game starting at 1:00 p.m.)

• According to CMU's web site, live stats and live video (fee required) will be available for all three games.

• The Falcons are in the midst of a season-opening stretch of 37 consecutive games away from home.

• Following this weekend's CMU series, the Falcons head to the MAC's "West Coast" for a three-game set with Northern Illinois University next weekend (March 31-April 1). Then, the Brown and Orange will begin the home portion of the schedule with a doubleheader vs. Miami University on Tuesday, April 4.

BGSU SOFTBALL LINKS
NOTES/WEB SITE: BGSU (PDF Notes) | CMU
BGSU 2017 Media Guide

NOTING THE FALCONS
• The Falcons are 14-17 on the season, with records of 2-9 in true road games and 12-8 in neutral-site contests. BGSU will be looking to snap a five-game losing streak after a 7-1 loss to No. 19 Michigan on Tuesday (March 21).

• The Falcons went 5-2 on the team's spring break trip, splitting a twinbill at Western Kentucky (March 8), then going 4-1 at the Ole Miss Classic in Oxford, Miss. BG won the final four games in that tourney after dropping the opener to the then-No. 22 Rebels.

• Last weekend, the Orange and Brown dropped four games at the Hoosier Classic in Bloomington, Ind. Sunday's (March 19) narrow losses included a 4-1 setback to UIC and a 1-0 loss to host Indiana.

• Redshirt juniors Chelsea Raker and Aspen Searle hit .455 and .364, respectively, at the Hoosier Classic. Raker, a first baseman, went 5-for-11 at the plate, with a double, a homer and a slugging percentage of .818. Searle's 4-for-11 performance included her team-leading 12th two-base hit of the year.

• Searle, last week's MAC East Division Player of the Week, was tied for third in the entire nation in doubles entering this week's action, while Raker was deadlocked for sixth with 11 doubles on the season.

• Raker and Searle are batting .396 and .360, respectively, this season to date.

• Raker has team-leading totals of five homers, 27 runs batted in and 62 total bases, while Searle is second on the Falcons in all three categories. Searle, a shortstop, has three round-trippers, 22 RBI and 57 total bases through 31 games.

• Raker has a .681 slugging percentage, while Searle has a .570 slugging pct. heading into Friday's CMU tilt.

• The Falcons' corner outfielders, freshman RF Kendyl Wheeler and sophomore LF Alex Sorgi, are third and fourth, respectively, on the team in batting. Wheeler is hitting .311 with a team-leading two triples on the year.

• Sorgi is batting .309 and leads the Falcons in runs (26), walks (20) and stolen bases (11). She saw a streak of consecutive games reaching base snapped at 14 in Sunday's first contest at the Hoosier Classic.

• Searle had reached base in 12 consecutive games before going 0-for-3 at Michigan on Tuesday.

• Senior 3B Haley Schrock is batting .284 on the season, and is third on the team (behind Raker and Searle) in doubles, homers, RBI and total bases. Schrock has eight extra-base hits on six doubles and two round-trippers, and she also had 11 RBI and 35 total bases.

• Schrock already has tied a school single-season record, with five sacrifice flies this year to date. That record was originally set by Dena Romstadt in 1991 and matched by Raker during her freshman season of 2014.

• In the circle, four different Falcons have made at least four starts, and all four have thrown at least one complete game.

• Three sophomores have three or more wins apiece. Meredith Miller owns a 7-3 record and a 2.84 earned-run average. In addition to wins and ERA, Miller leads the Falcons in innings pitched (74), strikeouts (65) and complete-game shutouts (two).

• Sophomores Brooke Parker and Kiley Sosby have three wins apiece. Parker has thrown 71 2/3 innings and has a 3.52 ERA, 36 strikeouts and a save. Sosby is 3-3 with a 3.72 ERA and 41 strikeouts in 32 innings. She has allowed opponents to hit just .164 against her.

• 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 scored 116 runs and allowed 130 this season to date. BG has 223 hits to the foes' 204, with a team batting average of .275 to the opponents' .262.

• Five players – Raker, Schrock, Searle, Sorgi and sophomore CF Hannah Giammarino – have started all 31 games, while Wheeler has made 29 and junior 2B Katee Hinkle 21. The catching platoon of junior Laine Simmons and freshman Logan Everett have started 18 and 17 times, respectively.

• The Falcons stole a total of 23 bases in 28 attempts last year. This season, through 31 games, BG has 28 steals in 33 attempts. No BG player stole more than seven bases a year ago, but Sorgi is a perfect 11-for-11 this season to date.

• 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.

ADDITIONAL FALCON FACTS
• Several Falcons were ranked in the MAC statistics entering the week.

• Redshirt juniors Aspen Searle and Chelsea Raker ranked first and second, respectively, in the league in doubles.

• Raker is tied for first in the league in RBI (27), and she is also ranked among the MAC leaders in total bases (T-third), hits (T-fourth), on-base percentage (fifth) and homers (T-sixth).

• Searle is third in the MAC in hits, fourth in total bases and fifth in RBI.

• Alex Sorgi leads the league in walks (20) and is second in both runs (26) and stolen bases (11). The sophomore speedster entered the week tied for eighth in the conference in hits.

• Freshman Kendyl Wheeler is tied for second in the MAC in triples.

• Sophomore Meredith Miller is ranked among the league leaders in numerous categories, including wins (T-fourth), strikeouts (fifth), complete games (T-fifth) innings pitched (seventh) and opponent batting average (10th).

• Sophomore Brooke Parker is deadlocked for fifth in the loop in complete games, and she is ninth in innings pitched.

• Sophomore Kiley Sosby is second in the conference in opponent batting average, as foes are hitting just .164 against her this spring.

• Raker and Searle each have career totals of 17 homers and 80 RBI. They are tied for eighth in BGSU history in homers, and are deadlocked for 12th in Falcon annals on the RBI chart.

• Searle is tied for 13th in school history in career runs scored, with 84.

• Searle is tied for 11th in BG history with 32 doubles, while Raker has 28 career doubles to deadlock for 14th on that chart.

•Senior Haley Schrock is fourth in program history with 73 career walks. Schrock and Raker are part of a four-way tie for second on the BGSU list for sacrifice flies with seven apiece. The next sac fly for either player would tie Dena Romstadt's school record.

• Raker leads the Falcons with 11 multiple-hit games, while Searle has 10 and Wheeler nine. Raker has four three-hit contests and Searle three.

• Raker paces the team with five multi-RBI games, while Searle has four and Schrock three.

• Senior Sami 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.

A QUICK LOOK AT CENTRAL MICHIGAN
• Central Michigan enters the BGSU series with a 15-7 record on the season, and the Chippewas have won seven-straight games. CMU lost five consecutive games to begin the year, but the team has gone 14-1 since that time.

• Most recently, Central picked up a 3-1 win over Oakland in the Chippewas' home opener Wednesday (March 22).

• Allison Curtis is batting .388, while Lacy Tolfree is hitting .385 on the year. Tolfree has scored a team-leading 20 runs while Curtis has crossed the plate 15 times. Morgan Gardner and Rachel Vieira have 14 and 12 RBI, respectively.

• Rachel Knapp is 9-3 with a 1.78 ERA, and has five shutouts and nine complete games in 11 starts. Knapp took a no-hitter into the seventh inning of the Oakland game.

• Head coach Margo Jonker, in her 38th season with the Chippewas, welcomed back 15 letterwinners, including six starters, from a year ago. The 2016 CMU club went 24-27-1 overall and 11-11-1 in MAC play.

• Three days after the Falcons faced the winningest head coach in NCAA softball history (Michigan's Carol Hutchins), BG will go against the coach ranked fifth among active Division I coaches. CMU's win over Oakland gave Jonker 1,022 career victories.

THE SERIES
• BGSU trails Central Michigan, 74-23, in the all-time series between the teams, but the Falcons have won the last three matchups. Last season, the Brown and Orange swept a doubleheader by scores of 4-2 and 5-1 (April 8, 2016), before the final scheduled game of the series was canceled due to snow. Two years ago, in BG's last trip to Mount Pleasant, the Chippewas picked up a 5-2 win (May 2, 2015) before the Brown and Orange captured a 3-2, nine-inning win the next day. The Falcons are 12-29 at home, 10-32 on the road and 1-11 in neutral-site matchups with CMU.

COMING UP...
• Following the Central Michigan series, the Falcons will head to DeKalb, Ill., for a three-game set vs. Northern Illinois. The teams are slated to play a Friday (March 31) single game and a Saturday (April 1) doubleheader at NIU's Mary M. Bell Field.