Falcons Prepare for Five Games in Cali

THIS WEEK IN BGSU SOFTBALL
Gaucho Classic – Santa Barbara, Calif.
Date Opponent First Pitch*
Thu., Feb. 28 at UCSB 3:00 p.m.
Thu., Feb. 28 at UCSB 5:00 p.m.
Fri., March 1 vs. LIU Brooklyn 12:00 p.m.
Fri., March 1 vs. California 2:00 p.m.
Sun., March 2 vs. Pacific 12:00 p.m.
* all times Eastern

SETTING THE SCENE
• The Bowling Green State University softball team heads to the West Coast this weekend. Head coach Sarah Willis and the Falcons travel to Santa Barbara, Calif., for five games in the Gaucho Classic, hosted by UCSB.
• BGSU begins tourney action with a pair of games against the host school on Thursday (Feb. 28), with the first pitch of game one slated for 12:00 p.m. local time (3:00 p.m. ET).
• Friday (March 1) sees the Falcons again play back-to-back games, as BG meets LIU Brooklyn at 9:00 a.m. locally (12:00 p.m. ET) and California in the second game, which is slated for an 11:00 a.m. PT (2:00 p.m. ET) start.
• On Saturday (March 2), the Brown and Orange will meet Pacific in a 9:00 a.m. (12:00 p.m. ET) first pitch.
• There are a total of 12 games scheduled to take place in the tourney, which runs through Sunday (March 3). UCSB is slated to play six times, BGSU and LIU Brooklyn five apiece and Cal and Pacific four times each.
• Because of the way the tournament is staggered over the four-day period, each of the other four teams opens the tourney against the Falcons.

THURSDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE -- BGSU's scheduled Thursday DH vs. UCSB has been canceled due to weather and field conditions.

THE 2019 FALCONS: A QUICK OVERVIEW
• The Falcons are 4-4 on the season. After dropping three games at the weather-altered Upstate Classic in Spartanburg, S.C., to begin the season, BGSU went 4-1 at the GWU Tournament in Boiling Springs, N.C., last weekend.
• On Friday (Feb. 22), BGSU picked up one-run victories over Saint Francis (Pa.) and the host school, Gardner-Webb. (CLICK HERE FOR FRIDAY RECAP)
• Saturday saw BG down GWU and East Tennessee State by three-run margins. (CLICK HERE FOR SATURDAY RECAP)
• On Sunday, SFU's sixth-inning rally led to the Falcons' lone loss of the weekend. (CLICK HERE FOR SUNDAY RECAP)
• Head coach Sarah Willis is in her fourth season at the helm of the Falcons. She and her staff welcomed back 14 letterwinners, including six positional starters, from a year ago. Those six players include four – sophomore infielders Sammy Dees and Sarah Gonzalez and senior outfielders Kali Holcomb and Alex Sorgi – who started all 52 of the team's games in 2018.
• The returning hitters combined for 66.2 percent of the team's at-bats, 61.8% of the hits, 72.8% of the runs scored and 64.8% of the RBI in 2018.
• Four of the five pitchers who saw action last season returned, and that quartet combined to pitch 99.2% of the team's innings a year ago. The group also combined for 100% of the pitching staff's wins and strikeouts.
• Those pitchers include a trio of seniors in Meredith Miller, Brooke Parker and Kiley Sosby. Miller led the staff in numerous categories, including wins (14), earned-run average (2.94), complete games (16) and strikeouts (151). Parker had 10 victories and a team-high three saves, while Sosby allowed opponents to hit just .191 against her in 2018.
• Additionally, Willis and Company also welcomed a total of eight newcomers to the 2019 roster.
• On Tuesday, Gonzalez was named MAC Player of the Week after hitting .412 at the GWU Tournament. The sophomore's seven hits on the weekend included five doubles and a grand slam. (GONZALEZ NAMED MAC PLAYER OF THE WEEK)
• Sophomore Nikki Sorgi is batting a team-high .421 on the season. She has eight hits in seven games, and is one hit away from tying her total for all of last season. Sorgi leads the Falcons in hits, and is tied for the BG lead in runs (five) and RBI (seven).
• Both Dees and Gonzalez are batting .318, and both have seven hits – including five doubles – in 22 at-bats. Dees has drawn a team-high six walks and has scored five runs, while Gonzalez has seven RBI to tie Nikki Sorgi for the team lead.
• Freshman Marissa Mullen is batting .300, but has a BG-best on-base percentage of .588. She has walked four times and has been hit by pitch a team-high three times.
• In the circle, Miller has appeared in seven of the team's eight games, making six starts. She is 3-2 with a 3.37 ERA and 37 strikeouts in 35 1/3 innings of work.
• Miller allowed no runs and just one hit through seven innings of back-to-back games last weekend. The first, vs. GWU, wound up going to extra innings, and she struck out 17 in that eight-inning victory.
• Her next outing saw her throw just 77 pitches in a complete-game, one-hit shutout of ETSU.
• Parker has appeared in six contests, making two starts, and is 1-2 with a 4.91 ERA in 15 2/3 innings. She struck out a career-high 10 batters in the Falcons' second game vs. GWU.
• As a team, the Falcons are hitting .248 on the young season, to the opponents' .247.

FALCONS IN THE NCAA STATS
• Sophomores Sammy Dees and Sarah Gonzalez are tied for first in the Mid-American Conference and eighth in the nation in doubles per game (0.63).
• Freshman Marissa Mullen is 10th in the country in hit by pitch per game (0.50), and she is 28th nationally in on-base percentage (.588).

LAST SEASON...
• The Falcons wrapped up the 2018 schedule with an overall record of 26-26. BGSU posted the program's highest win total in five years, since the 2013 club went 27-24, and the Brown and Orange finished with a .500 record for the first time since that '13 campaign as well.
• The Falcons went 8-14 in Mid-American Conference play, finishing fourth in the East Division.

A FEW NOTES FROM LAST WEEKEND (in case you didn't click the links above)
• Sophomore Sarah Gonzalez, as mentioned, was named MAC Player of the Week on Tuesday. She hit .412 at the GWU Tournament, with a slugging percentage of .882. Gonzalez had at least one hit in each of the five games, and her seven total hits included five doubles and a home run.
• Gonzalez had seven RBI in back-to-back at-bats, with an eighth-inning grand slam vs. Gardner-Webb on Friday night, and a three-run double in the first inning of Saturday's first game, also vs. GWU.
• Senior Meredith Miller struck out a career-high 17 batters in that eight-inning victory vs. GWU. She had 14 K's and a one-hit shutout through seven innings, then – after the Runnin' Bulldogs mounted an eighth-inning uprising – struck out three-straight batters to end the game.
• BGSU single-game records are incomplete, but Miller's single-game strikeout total is the highest by a BG pitcher since at least 1995.
• Both Gonzalez and fellow soph Nikki Sorgi hit .412 on the weekend. Sorgi had a total of three RBI during her freshman season, but had a pair of three-RBI games at GWU. She entered the weekend with a career total of one extra-base hit, but had three doubles and a homer in the five games in Boiling Springs.
• Dees and senior Alex Sorgi each batted .333 last weekend. Sorgi had six hits and tied her sister for the team lead with five runs on the weekend. Dees had four doubles among her five hits, and also walked four times.
• Freshman Marissa Mullen had three hits in nine at-bats (also a .333 BA), but walked four times and was hit by a pitch on no fewer than three occasions. She reached base in 10 of her 16 plate appearances on the weekend.

THE OPPONENTS
• UCSB enters the BGSU twinbill with a 4-9 record on the season. Thursday marks the home opener for the Gauchos, who have participated in three tournaments around the state of California.
• Most recently, UCSB went 1-4 at the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic in Cathedral City, Calif., including losses to a pair of top-20 teams in Oregon and Oklahoma on Sunday (Feb. 24).
• Sammy Fabian is hitting a team-best .391, while Sierra Altmeyer, a three-time All-Big West Conference selection, is batting .375 on the year.
• Three pitchers have made either eight or nine appearances this season to date. Felisha Noriega is 3-2 with a team-low 3.46 ERA.
• Head coach Brie Galicinao welcomed back 11 players from a 2018 team that went 20-34 overall and 7-14 in Big West Conference action.

• LIU Brooklyn is 8-6 on the season, and the Blackbirds have won five-straight games – allowing just two runs in that stretch – heading into Friday's game vs. BG.
• Last weekend, the team went a perfect 4-0, with three shutout wins, at the Jacksonville Classic. The victims included Harvard, Delaware (twice) and host JU.
• On Tuesday, freshman Elena Valenzuela was named the Northeast Conference Pitcher of the Week. She is 4-1 with a 1.84 ERA this year, and has four complete games in five starts.
• At the plate, Alina Castillo is hitting .342 with a team-high nine runs scored, while Samantha Garcia is batting .324 and has two of the team's five homers to date.
• The Blackbirds' first three games of the year came vs. MAC competition, as LIU lost to Ball State and split a pair of games vs. Kent State at the FGCU Kickoff Classic in Fort Myers, Fla.
• Coach Roy Kortmann's team was picked to finish second in the NEC in the preseason coaches' poll. Kortmann welcomed back 14 letterwinners, including six starters, from a 2018 club that went 22-29 overall and 8-8 in the league.

• California has a 9-7 record heading into Friday's BGSU game. The Golden Bears have won two-straight games after topping Long Beach State and Cal State Fullerton on Sunday, at the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic 2 in Palm Springs, Calif.
• Lindsay Rood is batting .439 and has nine extra-base hits, 12 stolen bases and 16 runs scored. Mikayla Coelho is hitting .370 with team-leading totals of 10 walks and 13 RBI.
• In the circle, Kamalani Dung is 5-3 with a 2.45 ERA and 52 strikeouts in 48 2/3 innings of work.
• Legendary coach Diane Ninemire welcomed back 12 letterwinners, including six starters, from a 2018 Cal squad that went 35-21 overall and 7-16 in Pac-12 Conference play.

• Pacific is 4-9 on the season heading into Saturday's BGSU matchup. The Tigers split a pair of games on Sunday at the team's own Libby Matson Classic, losing to Oregon State but defeating California Baptist.
• Bradi Kooyman is hitting a team-high .386 on the year, and is the only Tiger batting over .220. Kooyman has four doubles among her team-leading 11 hits.
• Hailey Reed paces four pitchers, all of whom have made five or more appearances, this year. Reed is 1-4 with a 3.17 ERA and 35 strikeouts in 28 2/3 innings.
• UOP was picked to finish fourth in the West Coast Conference in 2019, and Reed and Talli Shephard were named to the Preseason All-WCC Team.
• Last year, Coach Brian Kolze's Tigers went 20-27 overall and 9-6 in the WCC.

THE SERIES
• The Falcons trail UCSB, 1-0, in the all-time series between the teams. The lone previous meeting was a 4-2 win by the Gauchos in Honoulu, Hawai'i, in 1996.
• BGSU trails California, 5-0, in that series. The Falcons and Golden Bears have not met since 1999.
• BG holds a 4-3 series lead over Pacific, but the Tigers came away with a victory in the teams' last meeting, in 2009.
• The Falcons and LIU Brooklyn have never met on the softball diamond.

DOWN THE ROAD...
• Following the Gaucho Classic, BGSU will head to the UGA Classic in Athens, Ga., next Friday through Sunday (March 8-10).
• The Falcons are slated to play two games each vs. both Western Illinois and the host school, nationally-ranked Georgia, along with one contest vs. Elon.

# B G S U F A L C O N S O F T B A L L #

Calendar

Upcoming Events

Recent Results

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Sammy Dees

Sarah Gonzalez

Kali Holcomb

Meredith Miller

Marissa Mullen

Brooke Parker

Alex Sorgi

Nikki Sorgi

Kiley Sosby

Upcoming Events

Recent Results

Bowling Green State University Athletics