Falcons Close Home Portion of Schedule with Tuesday Twinbill vs. Oakland

Tuesday, April 28

Bowling Green, Ohio

2 p.m.

Bowling Green State University

Oakland

Madison Wendel | April 25, 2026, vs. UMass

Photo by: Drake Harlett, BGSU Athletics

Falcons Close Home Portion of Schedule with Tuesday Twinbill vs. Oakland

April 27, 2026 | Softball

BGSU battles the Golden Grizzlies in a 2 p.m. doubleheader at Meserve Field

By: by Mike Cihon, BGSU Strategic Communications

FIRST PITCH...
• The Bowling Green State University softball team closes the home portion of the 2026 regular-season schedule with a Tuesday (April 28) doubleheader at Meserve Field. Head coach Michelle Gardner's Falcons will face Oakland University, with the first pitch of game one scheduled for 2:00 p.m. Admission is free for all BGSU home softball games.

• Both of Tuesday's games are scheduled to be streamed on YouTube, courtesy of WBGU-TV with announcers from BG Falcon Media. The links will be available on the web at BGSUFalcons.com as well as on YouTube.

FUN FALCON FACTS
• The Falcons have shattered (figuratively, not literally) a somewhat-painful school record. BGSU batters have been hit by a pitch no fewer than 50 times this spring. The old mark was 35, set in 2018.

• Redshirt sophomore Addie Martin has been hit by pitch 16 times this season, which is also a school record.

• BG has stolen 89 bases this season, the second-highest total in program history. The 1988 team holds the record, with 104 steals that spring.

• Four Falcons have at least 14 stolen bases this season, as Martin and junior Cameron Kaufman each have 15, while junior Peyton Steffes and freshman Hannah Simko have 14 apiece. The 2026 season marks the first time in program history that four players have posted double-digit stolen-base totals in the same season.

• And, Falcon hitters have drawn 172 walks to date, and BGSU has tied the school record. The 2012 team also drew 177 free passes.

THE FALCONS – A QUICK OVERVIEW
• The Falcons are 18-26 on the season, and BGSU is 6-17 in the MAC. BG has topped the overall win total for all of last season, having gone 16-36 in 2025.

• BGSU picked up a 5-1 win over UMass on Friday (April 24), before the Minutewomen posted one-run victories in each of the last two games of the series. It marked the third MAC series this season in which the Falcons outscored the opponent, but captured one of three games.

• The Falcons enter the Oakland double-dip with records of 4-10 at home, 7-12 in true road games and 7-4 in neutral-site contests. BGSU has more than tripled the road win total for all of '25, having gone 2-19 in such games last spring.

• The Falcons are hitting .261 as a team, with six regulars batting between .265 and .313. Junior Taylor Behrendt leads the way with a .313 batting average, while redshirt sophomore Addie Martin and junior Cameron Kaufman are hitting .300 and .294, respectively. Senior Hannah Hunt (.277), freshman Hannah Simko (.273) and junior Peyton Steffes (.265) are close behind.

• Martin leads the team with 10 doubles and nine homers. She also paces the club in RBI (32), total bases (73) and slugging pct. (.608) and is one of four Falcons with at least 14 stolen bases.

• Behrendt has a team-leading 42 hits this season, while each of the other five aforementioned players have either 35 or 36. As mentioned, Martin and Kaufman each have 15 steals, while Simko and Steffes have 14 apiece. Kaufman leads the Falcons with 34 runs scored and an on-base percentage of .432.

• Hunt is second on the team in RBI, with 28, while fellow senior Ashley Chevalier has 24 RBI in just 99 at-bats. Chevalier hit a BG-best .500 (5-for-10) in the UMass series. Another senior, Katie Hutter, leads the team in walks, with 23, and is third on the club in OBP (.425), behind Kaufman and Martin (.429).

• Hunt, Martin and Steffes each have started all 44 games to date, while Kaufman has made 43 starts, Behrendt 42 and Simko 40.

• In the circle, senior Mackenzie Krafcik has appeared in 26 games, starting 19, and has 11 complete games in those 19 starts. She also has an 9-9 record with three shutouts, one save and an earned-run average of just 2.97 in 113 innings pitched.

• Krafcik pitched in all three games vs. UMass, and had an ERA of 0.00 in 10 2/3 innings vs. the Minutewomen.

• Sophomores Morgan Beckham and Madison Wendel have pitched in 23 and 17 games, respectively, while junior Alyvia Roth has appeared in the circle 15 times to date. Beckham has allowed opponents to hit only. 259 against her, and is 5-7 with a 3.66 ERA in 65 innings of work, with six complete games in eight starts. Wendel is 1-4 with a 4.77 ERA in 58 2/3 innings, while Roth has a 2-6 record and an opponent batting average of .262 in 36 2/3 innings.

• 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 an aggregate 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 BG history, and became the first player in program history with at least 12 homers and 12 stolen bases in the same season.

THE OPPONENT / THE SERIES
• Oakland enters Tuesday's action with an overall record of 24-18, and the Golden Grizzlies are 8-7 in Horizon League action. Oakland dropped the first two games of a weekend series at Green Bay before capturing the final contest, 10-7. Maggie Murphy and Addison Caldwell are batting .438 and .414, respectively, and the Grizzlies are hitting .315 as a team. Kenna Bommarito is 11-8 with a 2.89 ERA in the circle, and has 123 strikeouts in 123 1/3 innings. Kama Skrek is 5-1 with a 3.57 ERA. Head coach Chris Stelma's club went 18-28 overall and 9-14 in conference play a year ago. Former Falcon pitcher Taylor Turner is an assistant coach on Stelma's staff.

• BGSU leads Oakland, 13-3-1, in the all-time series, but the Grizzlies won the last meeting, 6-0 at the Evansville Invitational four years ago. That snapped an 11-game BG series winning streak, including 6-5 and 8-4 wins in the last meetings at Meserve Field (March 13, 2019). The Falcons are 9-0-1 at home, 3-2 on the road and 1-1 at neutral sites vs. the Grizzlies.

DOWN THE ROAD
• Following the OU twinbill, the Falcons will end the regular season with a three-game series at Miami, facing the RedHawks in a single game on Friday, May 1, followed by a doubleheader the next day.

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.