BGSU Hosts Toledo to Begin Busy Week

Tuesday, April 7

Bowling Green, Ohio

3 p.m.

Bowling Green State University

Toledo

Taylor Behrendt v Buffalo | March 28, 2026

Photo by: Daniel Carlson, BGSU Athletics

April 06, 2026 | Softball

Falcons face the Rockets in Tuesday single game, Wednesday DH at Meserve Field

By: by Mike Cihon, BGSU Strategic Communications

FIRST PITCH...
• The Bowling Green State University softball team returns home for a midweek Mid-American Conference series at Meserve Field. Head coach Michelle Gardner and the Falcons face the University of Toledo on Tuesday (April 7), with first pitch set for 3:00 p.m. Admission is free for all BGSU home softball games.

• Then, the Brown and Orange will conclude the series by facing the Rockets in a Wednesday (April 8) doubleheader, with the first pitch of game one slated for 1:00 p.m.

• BGSU returns to the road this weekend, meeting Ohio in a three-game series in Athens. The Falcons and Bobcats will play a Saturday (April 11) doubleheader and a Sunday (April 12) single game at Ohio Softball Field.

• All three games of the Toledo series will air on BCSN in the Toledo area, and will also be available on ESPN+. The three games at Ohio also will be streamed via ESPN+.

FUN FALCON FACTS
• Junior Peyton Steffes hit a team-high .500 last week, and enters the Toledo series with a nine-game hitting streak. Steffes is now hitting .313 on the season, and is batting an eye-popping .457 (16-for-35) in the Falcons' 12 MAC games to date.

• BGSU has scored 5.30 runs per game this season, with 175 runs in 33 games. The school record of 5.25 rpg, set by the 1981 team.

• The Falcons have tied a somewhat-painful school record. BGSU batters have been hit by a pitch 35 times, matching the mark set in 2018.

• BG has stolen 75 bases this season to date, the second-highest total in program history. The 1988 team holds the record, with 104 steals that spring.

THE FALCONS – A QUICK OVERVIEW
• The Falcons are 15-18 on the season, and BGSU is 3-9 in the MAC through four weekends of conference play. BG is looking to snap a four-game losing streak, having fallen at Ohio State on Tuesday (March 31) and at Kent State over the weekend.

• Five of BGSU's nine MAC losses have come by a single run. The Falcons have been outscored by only five runs (44-39) in the 12 conference contests. BG outscored Western Michigan (7-3) and Buffalo (17-13) in back-to-back weekend series, capturing the final game of each of those sets.

• The Falcons enter the Toledo series with records of 2-4 at home, 6-10 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 .270 as a team, with six regulars batting between .272 and .333. Junior Taylor Behrendt leads the way with a .333 batting average, while classmates or Peyton Steffes and Cameron Kaufman are hitting .313 and .309, respectively. Redshirt sophomore Addie Martin is hitting .302, senior Hannah Hunt .276 and freshman Hannah Simko .272.

• Martin leads the team with nine doubles and eight homers. She also paces the club in RBI (28), total bases (62) and slugging pct. (.646) and is tied for second in stolen bases (12).

• Behrendt has a team-leading 35 hits this season, while Steffes and Kaufman have 30 apiece and Martin 29. Simko has a BG-best 13 stolen bases, and Kaufman has stolen 12 bases and scored a team-high 30 runs.

• Hunt is second on the team in RBI, with 22, after driving in 12 in a three-game span that culminated with the opener at Kent State. Fellow senior Katie Hutter leads the Falcons in walks (20) and on-base percentage (.446).

• Hunt, Kaufman, Martin and Steffes each have started all 33 games to date, while Behrendt has made 32 starts.

• In the circle, Krafcik has appeared in 19 games, starting 15, and has 10 complete games in those 15 starts. She also has an 8-6 record with three shutouts, one save and a 2.93 earned-run average in 90 2/3 innings pitched.

• Sophomores Morgan Beckham and Madison Wendel have pitched in 15 and 13 games, respectively, while junior Alyvia Roth has appeared in the circle 10 times to date. Beckham has allowed opponents to hit only. 234 against her, and is 3-3 with a 3.40 ERA in 35 innings of work. Wendel is 1-3 with a 4.99 ERA in 46 1/3 innings, while Roth has a 2-6 record and an opponent batting average of just .244 in 33 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 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 with at least 12 homers and 12 stolen bases in the same season.

THE OPPONENTS / THE SERIES
• Toledo is 10-24 overall, and the Rockets are 6-6 in MAC play. UT is looking to snap a four-game winning streak, with the last three of those coming against Akron over the weekend. Samantha Bolding and Eli Enriquez are hitting .400 and .376, respectively, and Bolding has 10 homers to date. Katie McDonald has made 16 starts in the circle and has a 6-7 record and a 5.19 ERA, while Mady Yackee is 3-6 with a team-low 5.04 ERA. Last season, head coach Jessica Bracamonte's club went 19-28 overall and 12-14 in conference play.

• Ohio is 24-13 overall, and the Bobcats are 7-5 in the MAC heading into a midweek series at Miami. Last weekend, the 'Cats took two of three games at Ball State. Belle Hummel is hitting .460 with 49 runs scored on the season, and three of her teammates are batting .346 or higher. Skipp Miller has made 18 starts and is 12-5 with a 3.74 ERA. Coach Jenna Hall's team went 37-19 overall and 18-8 in MAC action last season.

• The Falcons lead Toledo, 74-51, in the all-time series, but the Rockets have captured the last six meetings, including a three-game series in the Glass City last season. BGSU is 43-18 at home, 26-31 on the road and 5-2 in neutral-site meetings vs. the Rockets.

• BGSU trails Ohio, 67-60, in that series, and the Orange and Brown will be looking to snap a seven-game losing streak vs. the Bobcats. The Falcons are 28-27 at home, 22-34 on the road and 10-6 at neutral sites vs. the 'Cats.

• More information on each of these series can be found elsewhere in these notes.

DOWN THE ROAD
• Following the Ohio series, the Falcons will step outside of conference play to face Michigan (Wednesday, April 15), before returning home to meet Northern Illinois in a three-game series that weekend (Friday-Saturday, April 17-18).

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.