Bowling Green State University Athletics
Friday, March 6
Clearwater, FL
12:00 PM
Bowling Green State University
vs
Providence
Photo by: Larry Clapper
Falcons Travel to Florida for Clearwater Invitational
March 04, 2020 | Softball
Weekend slate begins with Friday games vs. Providence & Penn State
THIS WEEKEND...
• The Bowling Green State University softball team travels to Florida this weekend, to play five games in the Clearwater Spring Break Invitational. Head coach Sarah Willis and the Falcons will face Providence, Penn State, Army West Point, Chattanooga and Seton Hall over the three days (March 6-8).
THE TEAMS / THE SERIES
• The Falcons are 6-6 on the young season, having played three tournaments in the state of Tennessee in as many weekends. BGSU opened the season by going 2-3 at the Chattanooga Challenge (Feb. 14-16), before posting a perfect 4-0 mark the following weekend (Feb. 21-23) at the Tiger Classic in Nashville. BGSU then dropped three games at the Buccaneer Classic in Johnson City on Sunday and Monday (March 1-2).
• Providence enters Friday's BGSU game with a 3-7 record. The Friars were picked to finish sixth in the Big East Conference in 2020, after going 30-22 overall and 11-9 in league play last spring.
• Penn State heads to Florida with an 8-12 record, after going 3-2 in last weekend's I-75 Challenge in Atlanta. The Nittany Lions returned eight starters from a 2019 team that went 24-32 overall.
• Army West Point is 8-7 on the year, and the Black Knights have won three-straight games, scoring a total of 33 runs in that time. Army was picked to finish fourth in the Patriot League after going 26-30 overall and 8-10 in conference play last year.
• Chattanooga has a 5-10 record heading into the weekend. The Mocs went 1-3 at last weekend's Holy City Showdown in Charleston, S.C., with three one-run losses.
• Seton Hall is 6-12 on the year. The Pirates were picked to place fifth in the Big East in 2020 after going 24-24 overall and 10-9 in the league last year.
• The Falcons lead the series with Providence, 1-0, picking up an 8-0 win in 2007 in the teams' lone prior meeting. BGSU trails Penn State, 3-1, in that series, and the last meeting resulted in an 8-0 win for the Nittany Lions in 2011.
• BGSU and Chattanooga are tied, 3-3, and the most recent meeting was a 7-5 BG victory several weeks ago (Feb. 15, 2020). Seton Hall leads the Falcons, 4-2, including a 13-4 win over BG five years ago.
• The Falcons and Army have never met on the softball diamond.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
• The Falcons are 6-6 on the season, after dropping three games at the Buccaneer Classic in Johnson City, Tenn., last weekend. BG's opponents included Tennessee Tech, nationally-ranked Tennessee and the host school, ETSU.
• Prior to that tourney, the Falcons posted a perfect 4-0 weekend at the Tiger Classic in Nashville (Feb. 21-23). BG outscored the opponents (Tennessee State, Central Connecticut State, Rider and Creighton) by a combined 26-5.
• Willis and her staff – associate head coach Teresa Wilson, assistant coach Carly Thomas and volunteer assistant Michaela Bauer – welcomed back a total of 10 letterwinners, including seven players who started at least 20 games, from a year ago.
• Freshman Payton Gottshall has seen action in 11 of BGSU's first 12 games of the season, starting nine. She has a 6-5 record, a 2.22 ERA and an opponent batting average of just .160.
• Gottshall has thrown seven complete games in her nine starts, including three complete-game one-hitters. She has struck out 93 hitters in 60 innings, an average of 10.85 strikeouts per seven innings.
• A native of Massillon, Ohio, Gottshall was named MAC Pitcher of the Week on Feb. 25 after picking up all four of BGSU's wins at the Tiger Classic, and she also made the NFCA's list of "Selected Top Performances" for the week.
• Junior Madison French has pitched in three games, starting one, and has a 3.28 ERA and an opponent batting average of .211.
• At the plate, senior Madi McCoy is hitting a team-high .308, and she leads the Falcons in runs (11) and hits (12). Redshirt sophomore Sammy Dees is batting .300 and leads the team in both slugging pct. (.450) and on-base pct. (.462), while junior Sarah Gonzalez is hitting .286.
• Seniors Taylor Blevins and Logan Everett are hitting .282 and .265, respectively. Blevins has a team-high five stolen bases, and has 16 total bases to tie McCoy for the team lead. Everett has a BG-best 11 RBI, and has already topped her total for all of last season (eight).
• Four freshmen – Gottshall, Greta L'Esperance, Montana Jones and Sophie Weber – were in the starting lineup vs. nationally-ranked Tennessee. It marked the first collegiate start for both Jones and Weber.
• The next day, Weber had her first collegiate hit, with a double vs. ETSU, and she added a single later in the game for her first career two-hit contest.
• Gonzalez started each of her first 114 games in a BGSU uniform, before making her first-ever pinch-hitting appearance on Sunday (March 2) at ETSU. She responded with a run-scoring double.
PRESEASON POLL / LAST SEASON
• 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 trip to Clearwater, the Falcons will head to Illinois for the Fighting Illini Tournament (March 14-15). BG will play two games vs. both Green Bay and the host school, and following that tourney, the Falcons then will play a game at Illinois State on Tuesday, March 17.
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 #
Players Mentioned
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