BGSU Begins MAC Schedule at Meserve Field this Weekend

Friday, March 23

Bowling Green, OH

1:00 PM ET

Bowling Green State University

Ball State

Photo by: Roni Sorgi

March 20, 2018 | Softball

Ball State comes to town for three-game series

By: BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSU Athletic Communications)

• The Bowling Green State University softball team, winners of four out of the last five games, will look to build on that success this week. Head coach Sarah Willis and the Falcons are scheduled to meet Wright State University on Wednesday (March 21), weather permitting, before beginning both the home and Mid-American Conference portions of the schedule this weekend. BGSU is slated to host Ball State University for a Friday (March 23) single game and a Saturday (March 24) doubleheader at Meserve Field.

BGSU SOFTBALL LINKS
BGSU Weekly Notes: PDF
THE OPPONENTS: WSU Softball | BSU Softball
2018 Schedule | 2018 Record Book

FOUR THINGS TO KNOW
• Strong Start: The Falcons have an overall record of 16-10 on the season after winning three out of four games in Nashville over the weekend. BGSU has hit .323 as a team in the first 26 games, while allowing the opponents to bat just .230.

• Smashville: BG hit four home runs in Sunday's two games – both wins – and the Falcons hit a total of nine round-trippers in the four games in Nashville.

• Music City Mashers: Four of those nine homers came in Saturday's win over IUPUI. It marked BG's highest single-game total in over two years, since the Falcons hit four dingers in a win over Morgan State on March 5, 2016.

• Sunday Funday: The Falcons are now a perfect 6-0 in games played on Sundays this season. BGSU has outscored the opponents, 45-14, in those six games.

WELL THEN, THIS WOULD BE MORE, WOULDN'T IT?
• Last year's edition of the Falcons had 16 home runs in 56 games, but this year's club has homered 26 times in 26 contests.

• Junior Kellie Natham hit her first homer as a Falcon on Saturday, becoming the eighth different BG player to hit a round-tripper this season. A total of six different BGSU players hit a homer during all of last season.

• In 2017, BGSU's leader in home runs (Chelsea Raker) had six, and the Falcons had two players with more than two homers on the year. This season, junior Kali Holcomb already has six homers, and she is one of five players with more than two dingers.

WE'RE NOT SURE WHAT THIS MEANS, BUT WE LOVE IT
• Twice last weekend, the Falcons entered the latter stages of a game tied, 3-3. Both times, senior Laine Simmons led off the top of an inning with a solo homer. Then, later in the inning in each case, fellow senior Aspen Searle hit a two-out, two-run shot to give BG a 6-3 lead. This happened both in the fifth inning on Saturday vs. IUPUI, and in the seventh inning of Sunday's win over Lipscomb. Strange but true!

LAINE LEADS OFF
• Senior Laine Simmons had a stellar weekend in Nashville, hitting .429 in three games. The catcher, who batted eighth in the order in all three of those games, led off an inning in six of her nine plate appearances.

• In those leadoff appearances, Simmons hit .600, going 3-for-5 with a double and two home runs. She had what proved to be the game-winning RBI in two of those at-bats, and had an on-base percentage of .667 and a slugging pct. of 2.000 when leading off an inning over the weekend.

FASCINATING FALCON FACTS
• BGSU enters the week with an overall record of 16-10, and the Falcons have won four of the last five games. BG opened the season by going 5-0 at the CSU Dome Tournament in Cleveland, and the Falcons then went 4-1 mark at the Elon Classic.

• The Brown and Orange went 2-3 at Texas Tech's Jeannine McHaney Memorial Classic, though, and dropped a pair of midweek matchups at Abilene Christian. BG also went 2-3 at the UofM Softball Tournament in Memphis, before posting a 3-1 record last weekend in Nashville, sweeping IUPUI and splitting with host Lipscomb.

• BGSU is 3-7 in true road contests and 13-3 in neutral-site games this season to date.

• The Falcons have five starters hitting over .300, with three batting .369 or higher. Four of those players are slugging .488 or better and have at least nine extra-base hits this year.

• Senior Aspen Searle is batting .407 and has scored a team-high 23. Searle, who hit .500 (7-for-14) in Nashville, has a BG-best 15 extra-base hits, including team-leading totals of eight doubles and two triples, and is rapidly moving up the BGSU career lists in multiple offensive categories.

• Junior Kali Holcomb is hitting .370 and tops the team with six homers and 29 RBI. She has 12 extra-base hits and ranks second on the team in that category as well as slugging pct. Holcomb is slugging .679 (behind Searle's .703 pct.) on the year. Holcomb paces the Falcons with 11 multiple-hit games and 10 multi-RBI contests.

• Junior Alex Sorgi is batting .369 on the year, and has scored 18 runs to rank third on the club. She leads the Brown and Orange in walks (14) and stolen bases (11).

• Freshmen Sarah Gonzalez and Sammy Dees and are hitting .324 and .314, respectively. Gonzalez is tied with Searle for second on the team with five homers. Dees has six doubles to rank second on the club, and she is tied for second with nine multi-hit games.

• Sophomore Logan Everett and junior Hannah Giammarino are batting .346 and .333, respectively, in limited action this season to date.

• Junior Kaylee Parker (.289), senior Laine Simmons (.289) and junior Kellie Natham (.281) all are hitting over .280. Parker has 17 RBI to rank second on the team, while Simmons has three homers and a .511 slugging pct. Natham has started the last 21 games after missing the season's first five contests.

• Through 26 games, BGSU has 234 hits to the opponents' 147. BG has 67 extra-base hits, compared to 38 for Falcon foes.

• In the circle, junior Meredith Miller is 8-4 with an ERA of 2.34 and 102 strikeouts in 83 2/3 innings of work. She has allowed opponents to hit just .212 against her.

• Junior Brooke Parker is 7-5 with a 2.91 ERA in 65 innings, while classmate Kiley Sosby has pitched 20-plus innings and is 1-1 with a 3.39 ERA. Both Parker and Sosby have one save, and Sosby has allowed opponents to hit just .183.

FALCONS IN THE NATIONAL RANKINGS
• BGSU can be found all over the latest NCAA statistical rankings. As of Monday (March 19), the Falcons were 20th in the nation in team batting average, and BG was 19th in slugging pct., 25th in homers per game and 57th in scoring. BG leads the MAC in each of the first three categories.

• Individually, junior Kali Holcomb is 36th in the nation in RBI in per game, while classmate Meredith Miller is ranked 35th in the country in total strikeouts and 41st in strikeouts per seven innings.

ASPEN MOVING TOWARD THE SUMMIT: SEARLE RECORD WATCH
• Senior Aspen Searle has added her name to the BGSU record book in many, many categories. Searle has moved into third place in school history in both hits (213) and total bases (339), and she is fourth in doubles (42), fifth in both at-bats (639) and runs (115) and sixth in batting avg. (.333), home runs (24), RBI (107) and slugging pct. (.531). She is tied for eighth in sacrifice flies (four) and is 17th in walks (50).

• Additionally, Searle is ranked among the NCAA's active career leaders in five categories. Among current Division-I players, Searle is 32nd or higher in career games played, at-bats, hits, doubles and total bases.

A QUICK LOOK AT THE OPPONENTS
• Wright State enters the week with a 6-15 record, but the Raiders have won two of the last three games. Honnah Susor, a two-time All-Horizon League First Team selection, is hitting a team-high .339. In the circle, Ashley Sharp has started 10 games and is 4-9 with a 4.27 ERA to date. Last year, WSU finished 21-31 overall and 14-10 in league play. Laura Matthews is in her first season as the Raiders' coach.

• Ball State is 18-9 overall, including a 5-3 record on the road. Haley Dominique is batting .393, while Janae Hogg is hitting .355 with 10 homers and 30 RBI. Aeshia Miles has thrown a team-leading 83 2/3 innings in the circle, and is 9-4 with a 2.09 ERA. Head coach Megan Ciolli Bartlett welcomed back 14 letterwinners, including eight position starters and all four pitchers, from the 2017 team that went 30-28 overall and 14-10 in the MAC.

THE SERIES
• BGSU leads the series with Wright State, 13-3, and the Falcons have won the last two meetings. BG captured a 5-3 decision in Bloomington, Ind., in the teams' most recent matchup in March of 2015.

• The Falcons lead Ball State, 49-40, in that series, and the teams have not met since 2015, when the Cards picked up a pair of shutout wins at Meserve Field.

COMING UP...
• Following the Ball State series, BGSU will continue a seven-game homestand with a matchup vs. Fort Wayne on Wednesday, March 28, followed by a three-game series vs. Western Michigan next weekend (March 30-31).

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