Play Ball! #BGSUSoftball Heads to Tennessee for Chattanooga Challenge

Friday, February 14

Chattanooga, TN

1:30 PM

Bowling Green State University

Tennessee Tech

Tickets

Play Ball! #BGSUSoftball Heads to Tennessee for Chattanooga Challenge

February 12, 2020 | Softball

BGSU Notes & Stats Chattanooga Challenge Tournament Central Tickets

Falcons open 2020 season with three-straight tourneys in Tennessee

By: by Mike Cihon, Assistant Director for Athletic Communications

THIS WEEKEND...
• The Bowling Green State University softball team heads to the state of Tennessee for the first of three consecutive weekends. This weekend sees head coach Sarah Willis and the Falcons open the 2020 season with five games at the Chattanooga Challenge.
• The games will be played at Jim Frost Stadium and the Warner Park Softball Complex. Four of BG's games are scheduled to be played at Warner Park Field #1, while the Falcons' Saturday game vs. host Chattanooga is slated to take place at Frost.
• Each game is tentatively scheduled to have live stats, and all games involving Chattanooga will have live video via either ESPN3 or ESPN+.
• The Falcons are 0-3 all-time against season-opening opponent Tennessee Tech, and BGSU and Indiana State are tied, 4-4, in that series.
• BG trails Chattanooga (3-2), Lipscomb (3-1) and Western Kentucky (4-3) in each of those respective series.

ABOUT THE FALCONS
• Willis and her staff – associate head coach Teresa Wilson, assistant coach Carly Thomas and volunteer assistant Michaela Bauer – welcome back a total of 10 letterwinners, including seven players who started at least 20 games, a year ago.
• BGSU was picked to finish ninth in the Mid-American Conference, according to the preseason poll. The poll is the result of voting by the league's 11 head coaches.
• Last year, the Falcons finished with records of 22-29 overall and 7-14 in MAC play.
•BGSU went 8-6 at home, 10-14 on the road and 4-9 in neutral-site games last spring. The Falcons ended the season by winning five of the final seven games.
• The Falcons hit .270 as a team last spring. BG has batted .270 or higher in each of the last two years after doing so just five times in the previous 39 seasons.
• BGSU scored 225 runs in 2019, just five runs shy of the school record (set in 2012). BG's 4.41 runs per game last season was the third-highest average in program history and the highest since 2007.
• And, the team's total of 201 RBI in 2019 fell just one shy of that school record.
• BG's returnees include junior Sarah Gonzalez, who started all 51 games a year ago. In fact, Gonzalez has started every game (103) in her Falcon career to date.
• Gonzalez begins her junior season ranked in the top 10 on a pair of BGSU career lists. She is currently 10th in BG history in slugging percentage, at .447, and she is tied for 10th with four career sacrifice flies.
• Senior Madi McCoy hit a team-leading .324 last year. She had BG-best totals of nine home runs and 31 RBI, despite playing in just 34 of BGSU's 51 games due to injuries.
• Junior Nikki Sorgi (47 starts) and senior Taylor Blevins (35 starts) each hit .311 a year ago, and Blevins stole 12 bases, tops among BG's returnees. Junior Payton Hamm (42 starts) batted .299 and was one of eight players with at least two homers in 2019. Five of those eight return.
• Seniors Evelyn Loyola and Logan Everett and sophomore Madeline Dyer combined to make 54 starts a year ago. Between them, Loyola and Everett started nearly every game behind the plate. Dyer moved into the lineup midway through the season, and started 21 of the final 25 games – including each of the last 19 – at third base.
• Another key component in BG's plans is redshirt sophomore Sammy Dees. Dees started all 52 of the Falcons' games at second base as a freshman, and started 13 of the first 15 contests last year before missing the final 36 games due to injury. She has a .289 batting average in 65 career games.
• Dees (second base) and McCoy (shortstop) started the Falcons' first three games of the 2019 season, but that duo played together in just six of last year's 51 contests.
• In all, BGSU's returnees combined for 61.3 percent of the team's at-bats a year ago, as well as 60.9% of the runs scored, 61.5% of the hits and 65.2% of the RBI.
• In the circle, however, BGSU graduated three pitchers, including two (Meredith Miller and Brooke Parker) who combined to start 50 of last year's 51 games. BGSU's returning pitchers threw just 5.5% of the total innings last spring (18 1/3 of 336 IP).
• The BG pitching corps includes junior Madison French, sophomore Hannah Davies and freshmen Payton Gottshall and Sydney Stepp.
• Gottshall and Stepp are two of the Falcons' eight newcomers. That group includes fellow freshmen Sophie Bosket, Montana Jones, Greta L'Esperance, Madison Lenig and Sophie Weber along with senior Summer Callahan. Callahan joins the Falcons after playing three seasons at Michigan State University.

A LOOK AHEAD
• Following the Chattanooga Challenge, the Falcons are slated to return to Tennessee two more times in as many weekends. BGSU heads to Nashville for the Tiger Classic, hosted by Tennessee State (Feb. 21-23). Then, the Falcons will participate in the Buccaneer Classic, hosted by East Tennessee State (Feb. 28-March 1).

FOLLOW THE FALCONS
For more information on all things BGSU softball, follow the Falcons on Twitter (@BGAthletics and @BGSUSoftball) and Instagram (@bgsu_softball) as well as on the web at BGSUFalcons.com.

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