BG's Busy Schedule Continues with Five Games in Memphis

Friday, March 9

Memphis, TN

10:00 AM ET

Bowling Green State University

Indiana State

Photo by: BGSU Strategic Communications

March 08, 2018 | Softball

The UofM Softball Tournament begins Friday morning

By: BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSU Athletic Communications)

• The Bowling Green State University softball team travels to Tennessee to play five games in this weekend's UofM Softball Tournament, hosted by Memphis. Head coach Sarah Willis and the Falcons are scheduled to face Indiana State and Mississippi Valley State on Friday (March 9), Tennessee State and the host school on Saturday (March 10) and Butler on Sunday morning (March 11).

BGSU SOFTBALL LINKS
BGSU Weekly Notes: PDF
UofM Tournament Central
2018 Schedule | 2018 Record Book

FOUR THINGS TO KNOW
• The Falcons have an overall record of 11-6 on the season. BGSU has hit .322 as a team in the first 17 games, while allowing the opponents to bat just .222.

• BGSU has hit five triples, matching the total for all of last season. Additionally, last year's team had 16 home runs in 56 games, but this year's club has homered 14 times in 17 contests. Last year, six different BGSU players had a home run. Already this season, a total of seven Falcons have homered at least once.

• Senior Aspen Searle is ranked among the NCAA's active career leaders in five categories. Among current Division-I players, Searle is 40th or higher in career games played, at-bats, batting average, doubles and total bases.

• A total of four BGSU players had over 10 RBI in 2017. This year, three Falcons already have driven in 11 or more runs. That trio includes juniors Kali Holcomb (18) and Kaylee Parker (15) along with freshman Sarah Gonzalez (11).

FASCINATING FALCON FACTS
• BGSU heads to Memphis with an overall record of 11-6. The Falcons opened the season by going 5-0 at the CSU Dome Tournament in Cleveland, and BG posted a 4-1 mark at the Elon Classic the following weekend.

• The Brown and Orange went 2-3 at Texas Tech's Jeannine McHaney Memorial Classic last weekend, though, and dropped a pair of games at Abilene Christian on Tuesday.

• BGSU is 2-5 in true road contests and 9-1 in neutral-site games this season to date.

• The Falcons have four starters, including three newcomers, who each are hitting over .350, slugging over .600 and have at least seven extra-base hits this year.

• Junior Kali Holcomb leads the team in batting, with a .389 average. Holcomb, who began the season with a 10-game hitting streak, also tops the team with 18 RBI, a .685 slugging pct. and eight multiple-hit games. She is one of three players with three homers, and is tied for the BG lead with nine extra-base hits.

• Senior Aspen Searle is batting .379 and has scored a team-high 16 runs. Searle has eight extra-base hits, including a BG-best two triples, and is rapidly moving up the BGSU career lists in multiple offensive categories.

• Freshmen Sammy Dees and Sarah Gonzalez are hitting .373 and .356, respectively. Dees has a team-high six doubles, and both players have homered three times to tie Holcomb for the BG lead. Gonzalez, like Holcomb, put together a 10-game hitting streak earlier this season, while Dees is second on the Falcons with seven multi-hit games.

• Through 17 games, BGSU has 154 hits to the opponents' 91. BG has 46 extra-base hits, compared to 26 for Falcon foes.

• Four other Falcons are hitting .300 or better. Sophomore Logan Everett is hitting .375 in limited action, while junior Kaylee Parker is batting .308. Parker has 15 RBI to rank second on the team.

• Two other juniors, Alex Sorgi and Kellie Natham, are batting .302 and .300, respectively. Sorgi leads the team with nine walks and has scored 15 runs, while Natham has started the last 12 games after missing the season's first five contests.

• BGSU has outscored the opponents in every inning but one, the second. Ironically, the Falcons had not allowed a run in the second inning through the first 16 games of the season, before giving up seven runs (five unearned) in that frame in the nightcap at Abilene Christian on Tuesday.

• BG's best inning has been the sixth, when the Falcons have outscored foes, 27-9.

• In the circle, junior Meredith Miller is 6-2 with an ERA of 1.56 and 82 strikeouts in 62 1/3 innings of work. She has allowed opponents to hit just .178 against her.

• Junior Brooke Parker is 4-4 with a 3.34 ERA in 36 2/3 innings, while classmate Kiley Sosby has pitched 11 innings and is 1-0 with a 1.27 ERA. Both Parker and Sosby have one save on the young season, and Sosby has allowed only four hits (.111 opp. BA).

PUTTING THE 'HIT' BACK IN PINCH-HIT
• BG batters combined to go just 1-for-31– an average of just .032 – in pinch-hit appearances last season. Falcon pinch-hitters reached base a total of five times all spring, with three walks and one hit-by-pitch in 2017.

• This season, BG pinch-hitters have reached base five times to match last year's total. BG has three hits and two walks in pinch-hit appearances to date. Junior Hannah Giammarino has led the way with a hit, a walk and two runs scored in five plate appearances as a pinch-hitter in 2018.

FALCONS IN THE NATIONAL RANKINGS
• BGSU can be found all over the latest NCAA statistical rankings. As of Wednesday (March 7), the Falcons were ranked 26th in the nation in team batting average, and BG was 30th in slugging pct., 31st in doubles and 44th in scoring. BG leads the MAC in three of those categories, while ranking second in the league in doubles.

• The Falcons are 45th in the country in triples, 53rd in homers and 66th in ERA.

• Individually, junior Meredith Miller is ranked 18th in the country in strikeouts, 28th in strikeouts per seven innings and 52nd in hits allowed per seven innings (36th).

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 fourth place in school history in hits, with 198, and she is also ranked fourth in total bases (311) and sixth in no fewer than five categories, including batting average (.327), home runs (21), RBI (100), runs scored (108) and slugging pct. (.513).

• Searle is tied for sixth in doubles (38), and she is ranked seventh in at-bats (606), tied for eighth in sacrifice flies (four) and17th in walks (49).

A QUICK LOOK AT THE OPPONENTS
• Indiana State is 9-6 on the season. The Sycamores, who have only four upperclassmen (three juniors and one senior) on the 18-player roster, have been led at the plate by Leslie Sims (.361) and Bella Peterson (.350). In the circle, Abby Kruzel is 2-0 with a 1.40 ERA, and is one of four pitchers to have thrown between 17 and 30 innings for first-year head coach Michael Perniciaro. Last year, ISU went 24-29 and 8-14 in the Missouri Valley Conference.

• Mississippi Valley State is 2-11 on the year. Jaime Parmley is hitting .385 in 13 at-bats, while Jodeci Afoa-Tuia is batting .314 on the year. Jezabelle Quintana is 1-2 with a team-low 4.42 ERA for the Devilettes. Five players have thrown between nine and 24 innings for coach Lee Smith's team.

• Tennessee State is 2-16, but the Tigers have won two of the last four games. Katie Schneider is hitting .314 for first-year head coach Andrea Browning while Lauren Powell has thrown 58.2 of the season's 104.1 innings to date, and is 1-10 with a 5.97 ERA. Last year, TSU went 12-37 overall and 2-19 in the Ohio Valley Conference.

• Memphis is 12-5 after a win over TSU on Wednesday. Kyler Trosclair-Klatt is hitting .450 and has seven triples in 17 games, while Mariah Nichols is 4-2 with an 0.99 ERA. Molly Smith has a 7-2 record and a 1.01 ERA to date for coach Natalie Poole. Last year, the Tigers were 29-27 and 7-11 in the American Athletic Conference.

• Butler is 4-10 entering the weekend. Coach Scott Hall's Bulldogs were picked to finish third in the Big East Conference this year. Jenna Foreman is batting .412, and Alyssa Graves is 2-4 with a 1.51 ERA, having thrown 41.2 of BU's 91.1 innings this spring. Last year, BU went 23-29 overall and 11-9 in league action.

THE SERIES
• BGSU leads the series with Indiana State, 4-3. The teams' most recent meetings came last season, with the Sycamores picking up a 3-2 win, but BG bouncing back with a 7-2 victory the next day. Both of those 2017 meetings came at the Red & Black Tournament in Louisville.

• The Falcons lead Tennessee State, 2-0, in that series. BGSU captured road wins by scores of 6-0 and 9-1 on opening day in 2002.

• The Falcons have never met Mississippi Valley State, Memphis or Butler on the softball diamond.

COMING UP...
• Following the UofM tourney, BGSU will return to Tennessee to play four games in Nashville next weekend (March 17-18). The Falcons are slated to face IUPUI and Lipscomb twice each in the latter team's tournament.

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