Falcons Travel to MAC's "West Coast" for Three-Game Weekend Set

Friday, March 31

DeKalb, IL

3:00 PM CT

Bowling Green State University

Northern Illinois

Logan Everett at Indiana - March 19 2017

Logan Everett & the Falcons head to DeKalb for 3 games this weekend

March 30, 2017 | Softball

BGSU battles West Division favorite NIU in DeKalb

By: BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSU Athletic Communications)

• The Bowling Green State University softball team heads to the Mid-American Conference's "West Coast" this weekend. Head coach Sarah Willis and the Falcons will travel to DeKalb, Ill., for a three-game series vs. Northern Illinois University, with the teams scheduled to play a Friday (March 31) single game and a Saturday (April 1) doubleheader.

• Friday's game is scheduled to begin at 3:00 p.m. locally (4:00 p.m. ET), with the first game of Saturday's twinbill slated to start at 1:00 p.m. local time (2:00 p.m. ET) at Mary M. Bell Field.

• Live stats and live video (fee required) will be available for all three games.

• For the Falcons, the NIU series wraps up a season-opening stretch of 37 consecutive games away from home.

• Following this weekend's action, the Brown and Orange will begin the home portion of the schedule. The Falcons kick off a five-game homestand with a Tuesday (April 4) doubleheader vs. Miami University. The first pitch of game one is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. at Meserve Field. Admission to all BGSU home softball action is free.

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

NOTING THE FALCONS
• The Falcons are 15-19 on the season, and BGSU is 1-2 in the Mid-American Conference. On the opening weekend of league play, the Brown and Orange dropped a pair of games at Central Michigan on Friday, but bounced back with a 5-3 victory in a rain-shortened Saturday contest.

• BGSU has records of 3-11 in true road games and 12-8 in neutral-site contests this season to date.

• The Falcons are 4-3 in one-run games, and BGSU has a record of 14-4 when scoring at least three runs in a game. BG has gone 13-1 when scoring at least four times, and the Falcons are undefeated (11-0) when putting five or more runs on the board.

• Sophomore CF Hannah Giammarino hit .500 in last week's four games, including a pair of base hits against No. 19 Michigan. She was involved in the scoring of four of BGSU's eight runs, and raised her seasonal batting average 38 points in the four games.

• On the season, redshirt junior Chelsea Raker is hitting .388 to lead the Falcons, and she also paces the team in several other categories. The first baseman tops the Falcons in homers (five), runs batted in (27), total bases (64), slugging percentage (.653) and on-base pct. (.470).

• Redshirt junior SS Aspen Searle is second on the club in batting, with a .349 average to date. She leads the team in doubles (12) and is tied with Raker for the BG lead with 38 hits. Searle is second on the Falcons in runs scored (17), homers (three), RBI (25), total bases (59) and slugging pct. (.541).

• 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 .320 with a team-leading three triples on the year, and she is third on the team in total bases, with 39.

• Sorgi is batting .298 and leads the Falcons in runs (27), walks (20) and stolen bases (11). She is tied with Wheeler for third on the team in hits, with 31.

• Senior 3B Haley Schrock is batting .264 on the season, and is third on the team in doubles, homers, walks and RBI. Schrock has eight extra-base hits on six doubles and two round-trippers, and she also has 12 walks and 11 RBI.

• 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 an 8-4 record and a 2.72 earned-run average. In addition to wins and ERA, Miller leads the Falcons in innings pitched (85), strikeouts (70) and complete-game shutouts (two).

• Sophomores Brooke Parker and Kiley Sosby have three wins apiece. Parker has thrown 76 2/3 innings and has a 3.74 ERA, 38 strikeouts and a save. Sosby is 3-3 with a 4.03 ERA and 41 strikeouts in 33 innings. She has allowed opponents to hit just .167 against her.

• Senior Briana Combs is 1-3 with a 7.13 ERA. She has made seven appearances, starting four games this spring.

• The Falcons have scored 123 runs and allowed 143 this season to date. BG has 240 hits to the foes' 231, with a team batting average of .271 to the opponents' .270.

• Five players – Giammarino, Raker, Schrock, Searle and Sorgi – have started all 34 games, while Wheeler has made 32 and junior 2B Katee Hinkle 23. The catching platoon of junior Laine Simmons and freshman Logan Everett have started 20 and 18 times, respectively.

• The Falcons stole a total of 23 bases in 28 attempts last year. This season, through 34 games, BG has 29 steals in 34 attempts. No BG player stole more than seven bases a year ago, but Sorgi is a perfect 11-for-11 this year.

• 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 so far in '17.

• 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 are ranked at the top of the conference in doubles. Searle has 12 two-base hits to pace the MAC, while Raker is tied for second with 11.

• Searle is tied for third in the nation in doubles, while Raker is deadlocked for 16th.

• Raker is also ranked among the MAC leaders in on-base percentage (third), total bases (T-fourth), hits (T-fifth), batting average (sixth) and slugging pct. (sixth). Searle is tied with Raker for fifth in the MAC in hits.

• Alex Sorgi is second in the league in walks (20), and the sophomore speedster is tied for second in the conference in runs (27) and deadlocked for fourth in stolen bases (11).

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

• Sophomore Meredith Miller is ranked among the league leaders in several categories, including wins (fifth), strikeouts (fifth), complete games (fifth), innings pitched (seventh) and earned-run average (10th).

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

• Raker and Searle each have 17 career homers, tying them for eighth in BGSU history. Searle has 83 career runs batted in to tie for ninth on that school list, while Raker is 13th with 80 RBI as a Falcon.

• 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.

• Searle and Raker are currently ranked sixth and seventh, respectively, in career batting average, with Raker sixth and Searle seventh in slugging percentage.

• Senior Haley Schrock is fourth in program history with 74 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 12 multiple-hit games, while Searle has 10 and Wheeler nine. Raker has four three-hit contests and Searle three.

• Raker and Searle each have five multi-RBI games, while Schrock has three.

• Senior Sami Parave has already matched or surpassed her career-best totals in runs (six), hits (10), RBI (three) and total bases (eight) this season.

• Parave, who has started the last 12 games at the designated-player spot, is hitting .444 (4-for-9) with runners in scoring position. Searle (20-for-48) and Raker (16-for-44) are hitting .417 and .364, respectively, with runners in scoring position, while sophomore Hannah Giammarino is batting .409 (9-for-22) in such situations.

• Raker is batting .391 with runners on base, while Searle is hitting .380. The two are a combined 5-for-9 (Searle is 3-for-6) when batting with the bases loaded. Freshman Taylor Blevins, like Raker, has two hits in three at-bats with the bases full.

• 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 NORTHERN ILLINOIS
• Northern Illinois is 14-11 on the season, and the Huskies are 2-1 after one weekend of MAC play. NIU has won five of the last six games, including a 7-4 victory over Loyola (Ill.) on Wednesday. Last weekend, the Huskies took two of three games from visiting Akron to begin the league schedule.

• Kayti Grable is batting .385, while Jessica Rio is hitting .372 on the year. Grable leads the Huskies in numerous categories, including hits (30), homers (four), RBI (19), while Rio has scored a team-high 18 runs.

• In the circle, Alex Frenz and Tara Thacker have combined to start 23 of the team's 25 games. Frenz is 9-2 with a 1.97 ERA in 71 innings, while Thacker is 2-7 with a 2.73 ERA in 64 innings of work. Both pitchers have three complete games and two saves.

• Head coach Christina Sutcliffe welcomed back a total of 11 players who made at least 10 starts a year ago. The 2016 Huskies went 35-20 overall and won the MAC's West Division with a 13-10 league ledger. NIU was picked to win the West again in 2017, according to the preseason coaches' poll.

THE SERIES
• BGSU trails Northern Illinois, 25-24, in the all-time series between the teams, and the Huskies swept a three-game series at Meserve Field last season (March 25-26, 2016). Two years ago, in the teams' last meetings in DeKalb, the Huskies won game one of a DH, 5-3, before the Falcons roared back with a 10-5 win in the nightcap (April 3, 2015). The Falcons are 10-9 at home, 9-13 on the road and 5-3 in neutral-site matchups with the Huskies through the years.

COMING UP...
• Following the NIU series, the Falcons are slated to play the next five games at Meserve Field. BGSU is scheduled to host Miami in a Tuesday (April 4) twinbill, before meeting Eastern Michigan in a three-game weekend series, with a single game on Friday (April 7) and a doubleheader the following day.