BGSU Begins Five-Game Homestand with Tuesday Twinbill vs. Miami

Tuesday, April 4

Bowling Green, OH

3:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

Miami

Game action - Meserve Field - October 2016

April 03, 2017 | Softball

Falcons also host EMU in a three-game weekend series at Meserve Field

By: BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSU Athletic Communications)

• The Bowling Green State University softball team, after playing 37 consecutive games away from home to begin the 2017 season, will kick off the home portion of the schedule this week. Head coach Sarah Willis and the Falcons start a five-game homestand with a Tuesday (April 4) doubleheader vs. Miami University. First pitch for game one of the Mid-American Conference twinbill is set for 3:00 p.m. at Meserve Field.

• Then, the Brown and Orange will host Eastern Michigan University in a three-game weekend series. The Falcons and Eagles are scheduled to play a Friday (April 7) single game and a Saturday (April 8) doubleheader.

• Admission to all home Falcon softball action is free. Live stats will be available for all BGSU home games as well, and twitter updates for all BG softball action, both home and away, can be found at @BGSUSoftball on your twitter-related device.

BGSU SOFTBALL LINKS
THIS WEEK'S NOTES: BGSU
BGSU 2017 Media Guide
THE OPPONENTS: Miami | EMU

NOTING THE FALCONS
• The Falcons are 16-21 on the season, and BGSU is 2-4 in the Mid-American Conference. BGSU has won two of the last four games, including a 5-3 victory at Central Michigan in the final game of the teams' first MAC series of the year.

• Last weekend, the Falcons dropped two of three games on the road against preseason MAC West Division favorite Northern Illinois. BGSU scored 19 runs in the three games, including 11 in a win in game two of the series.

• Redshirt juniors Chelsea Raker and Aspen Searle are hitting .360 and .347, respectively, on the year. Both players have five homers and 28 RBI to tie for the team lead in each category.

• Raker leads BG in slugging percentage (.595), and the first baseman also tops the Falcons in on-base pct. (.438). She is second on the team in hits (40), doubles (11), total bases (66) and walks (16).

• Searle paces the Falcons in at-bats (121), hits (42), doubles (12) and total bases (69), and the shortstop is second in runs (21) and slugging pct. (.385).

• 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 .330 with a team-leading three triples on the year, and she is third on the team in total bases, with 43.

• Sorgi is batting .308 and leads the Falcons in runs (28), walks (20) and stolen bases (11). She is third on the team in hits (36) and on-base pct. (.409), while Wheeler has 35 hits and is third on the club with a .406 slugging pct.

• Senior 3B Haley Schrock is batting .271 on the season, and is third on the team in doubles, homers and walks. Schrock and Sorgi each have 12 RBI to tie for third in that category.

• Schrock has six sacrifice flies this year, a new school single-season record. Her sixth came during the NIU series, breaking the record of five that was originally set by Dena Romstadt in 1991 and matched by Raker during her freshman season of 2014.

• Junior C Laine Simmons (.250), sophomore CF Hannah Giammarino (.244) and junior 2B Katee Hinkle (.242) all are hitting between .242 and .250.

• 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 9-4 record and a 2.89 earned-run average. In addition to wins and ERA, Miller leads the Falcons in innings pitched (92), strikeouts (74), complete games (nine) and shutouts (two).

• Sophomores Brooke Parker and Kiley Sosby have three wins apiece. Parker has thrown 83 2/3 innings and has a 4.10 ERA, 39 strikeouts and a save. Sosby is 3-3 with a 4.32 ERA and 43 strikeouts in 34 innings. She has allowed opponents to hit just .176 against her.

• Senior Briana Combs is 1-3 with a 6.46 ERA. She has made eight appearances, starting four games, this spring.

• The Falcons have 272 hits to the foes' 265 this year, with a team batting average of .278 to the opponents' .281.

• Five players – Giammarino, Raker, Schrock, Searle and Sorgi – have started all 37 games, while Wheeler has made 35 starts and Hinkle 26. The catching platoon of Simmons and freshman Logan Everett have started 22 and 19 times, respectively.

• BGSU has records of 4-13 in true road games and 12-8 in neutral-site contests 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
• With 16 wins this season, the Falcons are just two victories away from matching the total for all of last year. The 2016 club finished with an overall record of 18-36. Weather permitting, BGSU has 19 games remaining in the 2017 regular season.

• BGSU downed Northern Illinois, 11-5, on Saturday (April 1). The Falcons' 11 runs marked BG's second-highest total of the season, and it was the program's most runs in a MAC game in nearly three years, since a 12-11 win at Buffalo on April 18, 2014.

• The Falcons pounded out 18 hits in that win at NIU, BGSU's highest hit total in almost eight years. The Orange and Brown had a whopping 21 hits in a 9-7 win at Akron on April 30, 2010.

• Junior Katee Hinkle hit a team-leading .625 in last weekend's NIU series. Hinkle was a perfect 4-for-4 with a double, three runs scored and an RBI in the middle game of the series, and she raised her seasonal batting average 52 points in the three games.

• The four-hit game was the first of Hinkle's career (her previous best was two hits, on four different occasions), and it was the first four-hit contest by a Falcon this season.

• Senior 3B Haley Schrock, as mentioned earlier, has six sacrifice flies this season, setting a new school record. Schrock has matched the BGSU career record, with eight. She currently shares the latter record with former Falcon great Dena Romstadt.

• Sophomore Alex Sorgi entered the NIU series with career totals of no doubles and eight RBI. In game two in DeKalb, however, Sorgi had two doubles and four RBI. The Huskies employed a defensive shift against Sorgi in Saturday's first game, with three players on the left side of the infield. Sorgi's second double was a line drive through that crowded left side, and the bases-loaded hit split the outfielders.

• Freshman RF Kendyl Wheeler is batting .438 in MAC games to date, while Hinkle is hitting .417. Sophomore CF Hannah Giammarino is hitting .353 against conference competition, and Hinkle and Giammarino each have scored five runs in league play.

• The Falcons stole a total of 23 bases in 28 attempts last year. This season, BG has 31 steals in 36 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), and BG has had 10 or more hits eight times so far in '17.

• Redshirt junior SS Aspen Searle homered twice in the NIU series. She has moved into sole possession of sixth place in BGSU history with 19 career homers.

• Redshirt junior 1B Chelsea Raker leads the Falcons with 13 multiple-hit games, while Searle and Wheeler have 11 apiece and Sorgi 10. Searle has six multi-RBI contests and Raker five.

• Schrock is fourth in program history with 75 career walks.

A QUICK LOOK AT MIAMI
• Miami enters Tuesday's twinbill with a 17-14 overall record and a 3-3 MAC ledger. The RedHawks swept Western Michigan to open conference play, but dropped three games at Ball State last weekend.

• Michaela Schlattman is batting .370, while Kat Lee is hitting .363 on the year. Schlattman leads the RedHawks in runs (29), extra-base hits (17), on-base percentage and slugging pct. She is tied for second on the team with six homers, as Miami has a total of 31 round-trippers on the year.

• Shannon Hohman paces four MU pitchers with a 3.39 earned-run average. Hohman (6-4) and Kelsey Fredericks (6-6) each have six victories on the season.

• Head coach Clarisa Crowell welcomed back 13 letterwinners, including eight positional starters, from last year's team that finished 35-23 overall and 15-7 in the MAC. Miami won the MAC Tournament in 2016.

SCOUTING EMU
• Eastern Michigan is 13-17 on the year and the Eagles are 2-4 in MAC play entering the week. EMU is scheduled to play a Tuesday doubleheader at Toledo and a Wednesday single game at Detroit before venturing to BG this weekend.

• The Eagles have gone 1-2 in a pair of MAC home series. EMU won the opener against both Kent State and Akron before dropping the final two games of each series.

• Taylor Wagner is betting .413 for the Eagles, while Brandice Olmos and Michelle Kriegshauser are hitting .349 and .337, respectively. Kriegshauser has team-best totals of nine doubles, five homers and 20 RBI.

• In the circle, Trisha Trujillo has started 16 of EMU's 30 games, and is 7-9 with a 4.92 ERA. Abbie Minsker has a 2-1 record and a team-low 2.89 ERA.

• Head coach Melissa Gentile welcomed back 14 letterwinners, including seven starters, from last year's club that went 19-32 overall and 9-14 in MAC action.

THE SERIES
• The Falcons lead Miami, 53-49, in the all-time series between the teams, but Miami won all three of last year's meetings, including a 6-0 victory in the lone 2016 game at Meserve Field. Prior to last season, the teams had split their two regular-season meetings in each of four-straight years. The Falcons are 35-15 at home, 13-29 on the road and 5-5 in neutral-site meetings with the Redskins/RedHawks over the years.

• BGSU leads Eastern Michigan, 55-42, in that series, and the Falcons captured two of last year's three meetings in Ypsilanti. The Falcons have not hosted the Eagles since 2014, when EMU picked up a 3-0 win before the Brown and Orange bounced back with a 3-2 victory at Meserve Field. BGSU is 32-12 at home, 22-24 on the road and 1-6 in neutral-site meetings with EMU over the years.

COMING UP...
• Next week, the Falcons are scheduled to complete the season series with Miami as the teams play a single game in Oxford on Wednesday (April 12). Then, Buffalo will come to town for a three-game weekend set, as the teams will play a single game at Meserve Field on Friday (April 14) and a doubleheader the following day.