Falcons Face Miami on Final Weekend of Regular Season

Friday, May 1

Oxford, Ohio

3 p.m.

Bowling Green State University

Miami (OH)

Ashley Chevalier | April 28, 2026, v Oakland

Ashley Chevalier & the Falcons face Miami this weekend in Oxford

Photo by: Daniel Carlson, BGSU Athletics

April 30, 2026 | Softball

BGSU Notes

BGSU heads to Oxford for Friday single game, Saturday DH

By: by Mike Cihon, BGSU Strategic Communications

FIRST PITCH...
• The Bowling Green State University softball team wraps up the 2026 regular-season schedule with a weekend trip to Oxford, Ohio. Head coach Michelle Gardner and the Falcons face Miami University in a three-game Mid-American Conference series, beginning with a Friday (May 1) matchup at Miami Softball Stadium. First pitch is set for 3:00 p.m.

• Then, the Brown and Orange will conclude the campaign with a Saturday (May 2) doubleheader against the RedHawks. Game one begins at 1:00 p.m. that day.

• All three games are scheduled to be streamed via Chatterbox Sports. The links will be available on the web at BGSUFalcons.com.

LAST TIME OUT: FALCONS TAKE TUESDAY TWINBILL
• The Falcons closed the home portion of the schedule with a Tuesday (April 28) sweep of Oakland in a non-conference doubleheader at Meserve Field. BGSU picked up wins by scores of 8-0 (in five innings) and 4-3.

• In the final home start of her Falcon career, senior Mackenzie Krafcik threw a one-hit shutout in the opener, facing just one batter above the minimum in the run-rule win. Oakland's lone hit was an infield single in the fourth inning. BG was in command all the way after a five-run first inning.

• The second game saw BG again take a two-run lead after just two batters, on freshman Hannah Simko's first home run – not only as a Falcon, but at any level of softball.

• BG added a second-inning run, but Oakland tied the game, 3-3, in the top of the sixth. After a walk to begin the bottom of the inning, junior Peyton Steffes came through with an RBI triple to give BGSU the lead for good.

• Junior Alyvia Roth allowed just four hits, pitching into the sixth inning. Sophomore Madison Wendel picked up the win in relief, while Krafcik earned the save, getting three-straight outs after the Grizzlies began the inning with back-to-back singles.

• Senior Hannah Hunt was 5-for-6 with a triple in the DH, while classmate Katie Hutter went 2-for-3 with a walk and a double on her birthday.

• The Falcons had seven extra-base hits among 15 total safeties in the sweep, while all nine of the visitors' hits were singles.

FUN FALCON FACTS
• Senior Mackenzie Krafcik has not allowed an earned run in 16 2/3 innings, covering her last five appearances. She has lowered her earned-run average from 3.28 to 2.82 in that time.

• Krafcik's shutout in Tuesday's opening game was her fourth complete-game shutout of the season and the sixth of her career.

• BGSU's first walk of Tuesday's twinbill – drawn by Ashley Chevalier in the first inning of the first game – was a record-setting free pass. Entering Friday's opener at Miami, the Falcons have drawn 183 walks this season, breaking the old mark of 177, set in 2012.

• The Falcons have shattered (figuratively, not literally) a somewhat-painful school record. BGSU batters have been hit by a pitch no fewer than 52 times this spring. The old mark was 35, set in 2018.

• Redshirt sophomore Addie Martin was plunked twice on Tuesday, upping her school-record HBP total to 18 this season.

• BGSU went 3-for-3 in stolen-base attempts against Oakland. The Falcons now have 92 stolen bases on the season, the second-highest total in program history. The 1988 team holds the record, with 104 steals that spring.

• Four Falcons have at least 15 stolen bases this season, as Martin has 16 while Cameron Kaufman, Hannah Simko and Peyton Steffes each have 15. The 2026 season marks the first time in program history that four players have posted double-digit steal totals.

• Martin, just a redshirt sophomore, has moved into a tie for 10th in career stolen bases, with 35. Steffes and Kaufman, both juniors, are 12th and 18th, respectively, on that list.

• Martin currently has a career slugging percentage of .605 at BGSU, putting her on pace to finish the season ranked second in school history in that category. Madi McCoy (2019-21) had a .617 slugging pct. during her three years as a Falcon.

• BGSU currently has a team on-base percentage of .383, and the Falcons are on pace to set a school record. The current record is .381, set by the 1988 club.

• BG has scored 4.85 runs per game this season, with an even 223 runs in 46 games to date. That puts the Falcons on pace for the second-highest average in program history. The school record is 5.25 rpg, set by the 1981 team.

THE FALCONS – A QUICK OVERVIEW
• The Falcons are 20-26 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, and the Falcons' total of 20 wins is the program's highest since 2022.

• The Falcons went 6-10 at home and 7-4 in neutral-site games this season, and BGSU enters the Miami series with a record of 7-12 in true road games. 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 .264 as a team, with seven regulars batting between .261 and .305. Junior Taylor Behrendt leads the way with a .305 batting average, while senior Hannah Hunt and redshirt sophomore Addie Martin each are hitting .301. Junior Cameron Kaufman (.290), freshman Hannah Simko (.274) and junior Peyton Steffes (.268) are close behind.

• Martin leads the team with 10 doubles and nine homers. She also paces the club in RBI (33), total bases (74), slugging pct. (.602), on-base pct. (.438) and stolen bases (16). Martin is one of four Falcons with at least 15 steals this season.

• Behrendt has a team-leading 43 hits this season, while five of her teammates have between 36 and 41. Kaufman, Simko and Steffes each have 15 steals. Kaufman leads the Falcons with 35 runs scored, while Martin has crossed the plate 33 times.

• Hunt is second on the team in RBI, with 29, while fellow senior Ashley Chevalier has 24 RBI in just 104 at-bats. Another senior, Katie Hutter, leads the team in walks, with 24, and is third on the club in OBP (.436), behind Martin and Kaufman (.429).

• Hunt, Martin and Steffes each have started all 46 games to date, while Kaufman has made 45 starts, Behrendt 44 and Simko 42.

• In the circle, senior Mackenzie Krafcik has appeared in 28 games, starting 20, and has 12 complete games in those 20 starts. She also has a 10-9 record with four shutouts, two saves and a 2.82 earned-run average in 119 innings pitched.

• Sophomores Morgan Beckham and Madison Wendel have pitched in 23 and 18 games, respectively, while junior Alyvia Roth has appeared in the circle 16 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 2-4 with a 4.81 ERA in 59 2/3 innings, while Roth has a 2-6 record and an opponent batting average of .256 in 41 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
• Miami is 35-16 overall, and the RedHawks are 16-8 in MAC play, good for third place in the 12-team league. MU dropped a Tuesday non-conference game at Dayton, 4-0, but prior to that, the RedHawks captured two of three games at Central Michigan last weekend, outscoring the Chippewas by a 22-8 count. Bailey Manos and Danitza Hernandez are hitting .426 and .412, respectively, this season to date, and are two of three players on the team with double-digit home-run totals. In the circle, Presley Hosick has started a team-high 24 games, and is 17-5 on the year. She leads the team with five shutouts, 85 strikeouts and an ERA of 2.57. Head coach Mandy Gardner-Colegate and the RedHawks went 36-26 last season, winning the MAC with a 20-7 conference mark in 2025. Former Falcon Alivia Forshey is associate head coach of the RedHawks. Forshey was a member of the Falcons from 2015-18.

• The Falcons trail Miami, 70-58, in the all-time series, and BG is looking to snap an 11-game losing streak to the RedHawks, who swept a doubleheader last season at Meserve Field. BG's last win was a 4-2 triumph in Oxford four years ago (April 19, 2022), when BG scored four seventh-inning runs capped by a Peyton Dolejs grand slam. BGSU is 38-27 at home, 14-37 on the road and 5-6 in neutral-site meetings vs. Miami over the years.

• More information on the series can be found on page 19 of the PDF version of these notes.

DOWN THE ROAD
• The Miami series concludes the 2026 season for the Falcons.

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.