BG Begins Busy Week by Battling Buckeyes

Tuesday, March 31

Columbus, Ohio (NOTE THE SITE CHANGE)

4 p.m.

Bowling Green State University

Ohio State

Ashley Chevalier v Buffalo | March 28, 2026

Ashley Chevalier & the Falcons host Ohio State Tuesday before hitting the road for the next five games

Photo by: Daniel Carlson, BGSU Athletics

March 30, 2026 | Softball

BGSU Notes

Falcons face Ohio State Tuesday afternoon

By: by Mike Cihon, BGSU Strategic Communications

• The Bowling Green State University softball team begins a busy stretch of the 2026 schedule, with nine games scheduled in a nine-day span. Head coach Michelle Gardner and the Falcons step outside of Mid-American Conference play for a Tuesday (March 31) matchup with Ohio State. ~~The Buckeyes come to Meserve Field for a 4:00 p.m. first pitch~~.

(UPDATE: Due to the weather forecast for NE Ohio on Tuesday, the game has been moved to Columbus. First pitch is set for 4:00 p.m. at Buckeye Field.)

• Then, the Falcons are scheduled to play five games in Northeast Ohio, beginning with a Wednesday (April 1) doubleheader at Youngstown State. The first pitch of game one is slated for 3:00 p.m. at the YSU Softball Complex.

• And, BGSU then heads to Kent for a weekend series with Kent State University. The Falcons and Golden Flashes are slated to meet in a Friday (April 3) single game and a Saturday (April 4) doubleheader at Devine Diamond.

FUN FALCON FACTS
• Junior Cameron Kaufman had just four official at-bats in the Buffalo series, but had an eye-popping .818 on-base percentage vs. the Bulls. She went 2-for-4 with six walks – two in each of the three games – and had a sac bunt as well as getting hit by a pitch.

• Kaufman scored a team-high four runs in the series, and reached base seven times in eight plate appearances over the final two games vs. the Bulls.

• Sophomore Morgan Beckham has an ERA of just 0.40 in MAC games this season, having allowed just one earned run in 17 2/3 innings.

THE FALCONS – A QUICK OVERVIEW
• The Falcons are 15-14 on the season, and BGSU is 3-6 in the MAC through three weekends of conference play. BG has outscored each of the last two league opponents, Western Michigan (7-3) and Buffalo (17-13), capturing the final game of each of those series.

• At WMU, BGSU pitchers had a combined ERA of just 0.74 in the three-game series, as the Falcons allowed only one run in each game. BG dropped the first two games by identical 1-0 scores before posting a 7-1 win in the series finale.

• Last weekend, the Falcons dropped a pair of contests to Buffalo, getting the tying or go-ahead run to the plate in the seventh inning of each game, before exploding for a 9-1, six-inning win in the final contest of the weekend.

• Senior Mackenzie Krafcik, junior Alyvia Roth and sophomore Morgan Beckham each threw a complete game, and each allowed just one run vs. WMU. The trio allowed a combined 16 hits in 19 innings in Kalamazoo, as the Broncos had a team batting average of just .219 on the weekend.

• Beckham had a 1.05 ERA in two appearances in the Buffalo series, picking up the complete-game win in the finale. As mentioned, she has an ERA of just 0.40 in MAC play to date.

• The Falcons enter the OSU game with records of 2-4 at home, 6-6 in true road games and 7-4 in neutral-site contests. BGSU has tripled the road win total for all of '25, having gone 2-19 in such games last spring.

• The Falcons are hitting .272 as a team, with five regulars batting between .286 and .337. Junior Taylor Behrendt leads the way with a .337 batting average, while redshirt sophomore Addie Martin is right behind at .333.

• Junior Cameron Kaufman is hitting .306, while freshman Hannah Simko and junior Peyton Steffes each are batting .286.

• Martin leads the team with nine doubles and eight homers. She also paces the club in RBI (27), total bases (61), on-base percentage (.451) and slugging pct. (.726) and is second in stolen bases (12 - tied for second).

• Behrendt has a team-leading 31 hits this season, while Martin has 28 and Kaufman and Simko 26 apiece. Simko has a BG-best 13 stolen bases, and Kaufman has stolen 12 bases and scored a team-high 27 runs.

• Seniors Hannah Hunt and Katie Hutter are hitting .261 and .258, respectively. Hunt drove in five runs in BG's 9-1 win over UB, while Hutter leads the Falcons with 18 walks and is second on the club in OBP (.447).

• Hunt, Kaufman, Martin and Steffes each have started all 29 games to date, while Behrendt has made 28 starts.

• In the circle, Krafcik has appeared in 17 games, starting 14, and has 10 complete games in those 14 starts. She also has an 8-6 record with three shutouts, one save and a 2.43 earned-run average in 83 2/3 innings pitched.

• Beckham and fellow sophomore Madison Wendel each have pitched in 11 games, while Roth has appeared in the circle 10 times to date. Wendel is 1-3 with a 4.74 ERA in 44 1/3 innings, while Roth has a 2-4 record and an opponent batting average of just .248 in 29 1/3 innings. Beckham has allowed opponents to hit only. 240 against her, and is 3-1 with a 2.73 ERA in 25 2/3 innings of work.

• 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. BGSU had four seniors on last year's roster. Two of those four players did not see action in '25, and only one of the four players played in any games after March 8.

• 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.

• 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).

• 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 70 bases, shattering the total for all of last season. BGSU swiped 55 bases last year, in 52 contests. This season, BG is sixth in the entire nation with 2.34 steals per game.

• The Falcons went 11-for-12 in stolen-base attempts in the UB series. BGSU's lone caught stealing on the weekend came in a first-and-third rundown, with a run scoring on the play.

• BGSU's seasonal total of 70 stolen bases is tied for the second-highest total in school history. That is also the program's highest single-season total in nearly four decades, since the 1988 club swiped a school-record 104 bases.

• BGSU has scored 160 runs in this season's 29 games, a school-record pace of 5.52 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 30 times this season, just five away from the school record (35) set in 2018.

THE OPPONENTS / THE SERIES
• Ohio State is 15-18 overall, and the Buckeyes are 5-4 in Big Ten Conference action after a three-game sweep of Michigan State over the weekend. The Bucks scored 21 times and did not allow a single run in the three games vs. the Spartans. Abbie Wilhelm is hitting .375 with 13 homers, while Sami Bewick is batting .367. In the circle, Jenna Molk is 12-10 with a 3.04 ERA and 86 strikeouts in 25 appearances. Last season, head coach Kirin Kumar's club went 45-14-1 overall and 16-6 in conference play, advancing to an NCAA Regional.

• Youngstown State is 17-12 on the season, and the Penguins are 5-1 in Horizon League play after scoring 33 runs in a three-game sweep of Northern Kentucky. Emma Gilkerson and Lydia Wilkerson are hitting .380 and .378, respectively, as eight regulars are batting .315 or better. Kennedy Kimball has a 6-4 record and a team-low 2.15 ERA to date. Head coach Brian Campbell and the Penguins have topped last season's win total, as the 2025 club went 14-39 overall and 6-17 in the Horizon.

• Kent State is 14-16 overall, and the Golden Flashes are 4-5 in MAC play to date. The Flashes, 5-0 at home so far, are looking to bounce back after dropping a series on the road to Miami last weekend. Ashley Porter is hitting .379 this season, and Bowling Green transfer Aaralyn Nogay has a team-high 23 stolen bases to date. In the circle, Riley Miller is 8-6 with a team-low 5.02 ERA in a team-high 14 starts. Coach Jessica O'Donnell's team has topped last year's win total after going 12-39 overall and 4-22 in the MAC in 2025.

• The Falcons trail Ohio State, 21-10-2, in the all-time series, and the teams have not met since 2010. BGSU is 2-3-1 at home, 5-16-1 on the road and 3-2 at neutral sites vs. the Buckeyes.

• BG trails Youngstown State, 9-5, in that series, but the Falcons swept a doubleheader with the Penguins at Meserve Field last season (March 26, 2025). BGSU has gone 2-4 at home, 1-3 on the road and 2-2 at neutral sites vs. the Penguins over the years.

• BGSU trails Kent State, 82-50-1, in that series, but the Orange and Brown swept a three-game series from the Flashes at Meserve last season (March 21-22, 2025).

• More information on each of these three series can be found on pages 15 (Ohio State) and 17 (Youngstown State and Kent State) of the PDF version of these notes.

DOWN THE ROAD
• Following the KSU series, the Falcons will return home for a three-game series vs. arch-rival Toledo next week. BGSU will host the Rockets in a single game on Tuesday, April 7, followed by a doubleheader the following day, at Meserve Field.

• Then, the Orange and Brown will head to Athens for a three-game weekend series with Ohio on April 11-12.

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.