BGSU Battles Broncos in Three-Game Weekend Set in Kalamazoo

Friday, March 20

Kalamazoo, Mich.

3 p.m.

Bowling Green State University

Western Michigan

Jilliyn Gardner | March 14, 2026, vs. CMU

Photo by: Drake Harlett, BGSU Athletics

March 18, 2026 | Softball

BGSU Notes

Falcons begin road portion of MAC schedule

By: by Mike Cihon, BGSU Athletics

• The Bowling Green State University softball team begins the road portion of the Mid-American Conference schedule this weekend. Head coach Michelle Gardner and the Falcons head to Kalamazoo for a three-game series vs. Western Michigan University.

• The Falcons and Broncos are scheduled to open the series on Friday (March 20), with a 3:00 p.m. game at Ebert Field. Then, the teams will meet the following day (Saturday, March 21), in a doubleheader that begins at 1:00 p.m. There will be a video stream, via Bronco All-Access, and the links will be available at BGSUFalcons.com.

THE FALCONS – A QUICK OVERVIEW
• The Falcons are 13-10 on the season, and BGSU is 1-2 in the MAC after the opening weekend of conference play. The Orange and Brown captured the MAC opener, 1-0, against Central Michigan on Saturday (March 14) at Meserve Field, before the Chippewas took the final two games of the series by scores of 7-4 and 8-2.

• The Falcons enter the WMU series with records of 1-2 at home, 5-4 in true road games and 7-4 in neutral-site contests. BGSU has more than doubled the road win total for all of '25, having gone 2-19 in such games last spring.

• The Falcons are hitting .269 as a team, with five regulars batting between .286 and .329. Junior Taylor Behrendt leads the way with a .329 batting average, with redshirt sophomore Addie Martin right behind at .328. Freshman Hannah Simko and junior Cameron Kaufman each are batting .296 and senior Katie Hutter .286.

• Martin leads the team with six doubles and seven homers. She also paces the club in RBI (25) and slugging percentage (.731) and is second in on-base pct. (.464) and stolen bases (10).

• Behrendt has a team-leading 25 hits this season, while Martin has 22 and Kaufman and Simko 21 apiece. Simko has a BG-best 12 stolen bases, and Kaufman has scored a team-high 22 runs.

• Hutter has walked a team-high 18 times, and leads the Falcons with a .481 OBP.

• Behrendt, Kaufman, Martin, senior Hannah Hunt and junior Peyton Steffes each have started all 23 games to date.

• In the circle, senior Mackenzie Krafcik has appeared in 15 games, starting 12, and has eight complete games in those 12 starts. She also has an 8-4 record with one save and a 2.48 earned-run average.

• Sophomore Madison Wendel has pitched in 10 games, starting eight, while junior Alyvia Roth and sophomore Morgan Beckham have made eight appearances each. Wendel is 1-3 with a 4.50 ERA, while Roth has a 2-2 record and an opponent batting average of just .259. Beckham has allowed opponents to hit only. 240 against her, and is coming off of a four-inning outing against Central Michigan where she gave up just one hit.

• Head coach Michelle Gardner and her assistants, Greg McQuillin and Indya Smith, welcomed back 15 of 19 letterwinners from last year's team, including all nine positional starters and three of the six pitchers who saw action in 2025.

• That 2025 club surpassed the overall and MAC win totals for the previous two years combined. BGSU went 16-36 last spring, after posting a combined record of 15-79 in the 2023 (9-41) and '24 (6-38) campaigns.

• In MAC play, BGSU was 7-19 last year, after going a combined 5-51 in the previous two seasons.

• BGSU had four seniors on last year's roster. Two of those four players did not see action in 2025, and only one of the four players played in any games after March 8.

• At the plate, the players returning in 2026 combined for ...
   • 1,339 of the team's 1,362 at-bats (98.3%) in 2025;
   • 212 of the 219 runs scored (96.8%);
   • 195 of the Falcons' 198 RBI (98.5%); and
   • 360 of the team's 361 total hits (99.7%).

• In the circle, returning Falcons combined to pitch 215 of the 328 1/3 total innings (65.5%), including 134 1/3 of the 167 2/3 innings (80.1%) in MAC action.

• The 2025 Falcons scored 219 runs, the fourth-highest total in program history, and last year's BGSU club also ranked in the top five in school history in runs per game (4.21, fifth); RBI (198, third); walks (153; fifth); batters hit by pitch (32, third); on-base percentage (.350; fifth) and sacrifice flies (13, tie-third).

• Addie Martin was named to the MAC's All-Freshman Team in 2025. She hit 13 homers, the second-highest single-season total in program history. Martin became the first player in program history to hit at least 12 homers and steal at least 12 bases in the same season.

FALCON NOTES
• The Falcons have stolen a total of 56 bases, topping the total for all of last season. BGSU swiped 55 bases last year, in 52 contests. This season, BG is ninth in the nation with 2.39 steals per game.

• BGSU has scored 136 runs in this season's 23 games, a school-record pace of 5.91 runs per game. Currently, the school record is 5.25 runs per game, set by the 1981 team.

• Falcon batters have been hit by pitch 27 times this season, just eight away from the school record (35) set in 2018.

• Junior Taylor Behrendt has an eight-game hitting streak, and and has reached base in each of the last 13 contests. Senior Katie Hutter has a 12-game reached-base streak entering the WMU series.

• The Falcons are 9-3 in games Mackenzie Krafcik has started this season. BGSU is 11-4 when Ashley Chevalier has gotten the start at catcher.

THE OPPONENT / THE SERIES
• Western Michigan is 10-12 overall, and the Broncos, like the Falcons, are 1-2 in MAC play. Western began the conference schedule with an 8-6 win at Miami on Friday (March 13), before falling by scores of 6-5 and 9-1. Prior to the MU series, the Broncos defeated Ohio State, 11-10, in Columbus. Megan Malartsik and Rylee O'Brien are hitting .345 and .342, respectively, while Bella Duncan is batting .320 and has team-high totals of four homers and 24 RBI. In the circle, Ava Geyer and Hannah Potts have combined to make 20 starts. Geyer is 3-4 with a 3.67 ERA and two shutouts, while Potts is 4-6 with a 6.20 ERA. Head coach Marlee Wilson and the Broncos are more than halfway to last season's win total. The 2025 team went 16-36 overall and 10-17 in MAC play.

• The Falcons trail Western Michigan, 62-40, in the all-time series, but BGSU has won the last two meetings. Last season, the Orange and Brown won a series at Meserve Field, sweeping a doubleheader by scores of 8-0 and 4-0 after dropping a 3-1 decision in the opener (April 11, 2025). The Broncos swept a doubleheader in the Falcons' last trip to Kalamazoo, two years ago (April 30, 2024), and Western had won seven-straight meetings prior to last season's BG home DH sweep. BGSU has gone 19-23 at home, 17-36 on the road and 4-3 at neutral sites vs. the Broncos over the years. More series information can be found on page 15 of these notes.

DOWN THE ROAD
• Following the WMU series, the Falcons will return home for the next four games, beginning with a three-game set against Buffalo. The Falcons and Bulls will meet in a single game on Friday, March 27, followed by a doubleheader the next day (Saturday, March 28) at Meserve Field.

• Then, the Orange and Brown will step outside of MAC play to welcome Ohio State to Meserve on Tuesday, March 31.

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