Bowling Green State University Athletics
Friday, February 21
Nashville, TN
2:30 PM
Bowling Green State University
vs
Central Connecticut State
Photo by: Daryl Banther
Falcons Return to Tennessee for Tiger Classic
February 19, 2020 | Softball
#BGSUSoftball to play five games in Nashville this weekend
• The Bowling Green State University softball team heads to the state of Tennessee for the second of three consecutive weekends. This weekend sees head coach Sarah Willis and the Falcons travel to Nashville for five games in the Tiger Classic, hosted by Tennessee State, from Friday through Sunday (Feb. 21-23).
• BGSU is scheduled to play the first 15 games of the season in the state of Tennessee, and nine of those 15 contests are against schools hailing from the Volunteer State.
• This weekend, BGSU is slated to play two games against Central Connecticut State and one each vs. Rider, Creighton and host TSU.
• All games in this weekend's tournament will be played at Tiger Field, with live stats available for every contest.
THE TEAMS / THE SERIES
• The Falcons are 2-3 on the young season, after opening the season by participating in the Chattanooga Challenge last weekend (Feb. 14-16).
• Tennessee State enters the weekend with a 2-7 record. The Tigers advanced to the championship game of Mississippi State's Bulldog Kickoff Classic last weekend.
• Creighton is 5-4 on the year, and the Bluejays are 1-1 against Mid-American Conference teams. Creighton dropped a 2-0 decision to Toledo two weeks ago, but bounced back to beat the Rockets, 24-1, the following day.
• CCSU opens the season with Friday's 12:30 p.m. game vs. BGSU. Rider also begins the 2020 season this weekend.
• The Falcons lead the respective series with Creighton (1-0), Rider (7-0-1) and TSU (2-1). BGSU's only meeting with Creighton came in 1986, and the Falcons' last game vs. Rider was in 2002.
• BG swept a doubleheader at Tennessee State to open the 2002 season, and TSU's lone win over the Falcons came two years ago (March 10, 2018).
• The Falcons have never met Central Connecticut State in softball.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
• The Falcons are 2-3 after one weekend of play. BGSU opened the year at the Chattanooga Challenge, with wins over Tennessee Tech and the host school and losses to Indiana State, Lipscomb and Western Kentucky.
• 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.
• Freshman Payton Gottshall pitched in four of last weekend's five games, making three starts. She is 2-2 with a 1.75 ERA and 36 strikeouts in 24 innings of work.
• Gottshall had an impressive collegiate debut, to say the very least. She threw a complete-game one-hitter in the season opener, a 3-1 win over Tennessee Tech.
• Gottshall faced 23 batters, just two over the minimum, vs. the Golden Eagles. She allowed one hit, one walk and struck out 17 batters.
• BGSU single-game records are incomplete, but Gottshall's strikeout total was the highest by a Falcon hurler in a seven-inning game since at least 1995 (Meredith Miller whiffed 17 in an eight-inning win last year, the only other 17-K performance in the last quarter century).
• Sophomore Hannah Davies started the Falcons' other two games in the circle last weekend, while junior Madison French and freshman Sydney Stepp also saw action.
• At the plate, senior Taylor Blevins hit .412 with team-high totals of seven hits, 10 total bases and a .444 on-base percentage. Blevins had two extra-base hits all of last season and three in her career, before recording two extra-base knocks in this year's first two games.
• Seniors Madi McCoy and Logan Everett hit .375 and .333, respectively, last weekend. McCoy scored a team-high four runs, while Everett led the Falcons with six RBI. Everett had a total of 16 RBI in her first three seasons in the Orange and Brown.
• Junior Nikki Sorgi had three hits last weekend, and all three went for extra bases. She had a double, a triple and a homer for a team-best .600 slugging percentage. Sorgi had the game-winning RBI in both of BGSU's wins in Chattanooga.
• In addition to Gottshall and Stepp, four other freshmen made their respective collegiate debuts last weekend. Greta L'Esperance started all five games at second base, while Sophie Bosket made a pair of starts in left field. Sophie Weber made a pinch-hitting appearance vs. Indiana State and stayed in the game at first base, while Montana Jones was used as a pinch runner in four of the five contests.
• 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.
A LOOK AHEAD
• Following the Tiger Classic, the Falcons will return to Tennessee for the third-straight weekend. BGSU will head to Johnson City for the Buccaneer Classic, hosted by East Tennessee State (Feb. 28-March 1). BG is slated to play two games each against ETSU and nationally-ranked Tennessee, as well as one game vs. Tennessee Tech.
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.
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