Falcons Match 2025 Win Total as Beckham & BG Blank Rockets, 5-0

Wednesday, April 8

Bowling Green, Ohio

1 p.m.

Bowling Green State University

16-19, 4-10

Toledo

11-25, 7-7

Toledo

Bowling Green

Ashley Chevalier applies the tag as a UT runner is out at the plate in Wednesday's opening game.

Photo by: Drake Harlett, BGSU Athletics

April 08, 2026 | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

Steffes triples twice in Wednesday's opener

By: by Mike Cihon, BGSU Strategic Communications

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – The Bowling Green State University softball team jumped out to an early lead in Wednesday's (April 8) opening game, and Morgan Beckham made that lead hold up, firing a shutout as the Falcons topped the University of Toledo, 5-0.

The Rockets captured a 6-4 victory in the second game of the teams' Mid-American Conference series at Meserve Field.

With the victory in game one, the Falcons have matched the win total for all of last season. BGSU is 16-20 on the year, with 15 games remaining on the regular-season schedule, after going 16-36 in 2025.

In the opener, junior Peyton Steffes tripled in back-to-back at-bats, tying the school single-game record and becoming the first Falcon with two triples in a game in seven years.

Beckham, a sophomore, threw her first complete-game shutout of the season and the second of her BGSU career. She had a five-inning shutout in a Falcon win over Western Michigan last season.

NOTE OF THE DAY: TRIPLE YOUR FUN
• Junior Peyton Steffes went 2-for-4 in Wednesday's opening game, with a pair of triples. Steffes became the first Falcon with two three-base hits in a game in over seven years, since Payton Hamm turned the trick at Wright State on March 20, 2019.
• BGSU single-game records from the program's early years are incomplete, but Steffes is just the fifth player since 2002 to triple twice in the same game, joining Hamm, Melissa West (2009), Jeanine Baca (2005) and Crystal Wilson (2002).
• The NCAA Division-I record for triples in a game is three, achieved 17 times. According to the 2026 NCAA Record Book, no Mid-American Conference player has ever had three triples in a game.

BONUS NOTE OF THE DAY: OUCH!
• Two BGSU batters were hit by a pitch in each game on Wednesday, giving the Falcons a somewhat-painful school record.
• BG batters have reached base via hit-by-pitch 39 times this season to date. The old school record was 35, set by the 2018 Falcon.

BGSU-UT GAME ONE – HOW IT HAPPENED
• The first game saw BGSU starter Morgan Beckham retire the Rockets in the first inning. Left fielder Hannah Simko made a nice running catch of a Samantha Bolding drive in left-center for the second out, and after Audrey Miller's blooper landed inside the left-field line for a double, Beckham got Jenna Gober to ground out on the very next pitch.
• In the bottom of the inning, BG jumped on top for good. Izzy Ray was hit by a Katie McDonald pitch (setting an aforementioned school record in the process) with out out, and the Falcon freshman advanced to second on a groundout. McDonald gloved Hannah Hunt's ground ball back to the circle, but spiked the throw to first, with the ball going past first baseman Gober and into foul territory in right. Ray scored on the play, with Hunt reaching second.
• The next batter, Addie Martin, reached on an infield single. Her ball to the right side eluded Gober's lunge, and was fielded by second baseman Payton Pudlowski. But, Martin beat Pudlowski to the bag on a bang-bang play, with Hunt coming around to score for a 2-0 lead.
• Beckham walked two batters in the second, on seven- and nine-pitch at-bats, respectively, but got Ava Golightly to hit a grounder to second baseman Hunt, who flipped the ball to shortstop Cameron Kaufman for an inning-ending force play.
• Peyton Steffes tripled with two outs in the BG second, but McDonald was able to retire the next batter. In the top of the third, Beckham got three-straight batters to hit gly-ball outs, before the Falcons extended the lead.
• The home half of the third saw Taylor Behrendt draw a leadoff walk, then take second on Hunt's sacrifice bunt. Martin was hit by a pitch, and Ashley Chevalier followed with a line-drive single to right that plated Behrendt for a three-run BG lead.
• All four Rocket batters hit the ball to left field in the fourth. Pudlowski singled with one out, but Simko retired the other three batters in the half-inning.
• Then, Simko led off the Falcons fourth with a walk, and came all the way around to score when Steffes tripled two pitches later.
• In the fifth, Martin drew the Falcons' third leadoff walk in as many innings, and Chevalier bunted her to second. On the next pitch, Kaufman singled to score Martin for a 5-0 BG lead. Kendall Mathews bunted Kaufman to second before Simko drew another walk, but a ground ball got McDonald and the Rockets out of the inning.
• In the sixth, Miller was hit by a pitch, and after Beckham induced back-to-back infield popups, an Eliza Maloney single moved pinch-runner Maggie Roh to second. The next batter, Payton Abiley, reached on a two-out error as second baseman Hunt bobbled her grounder near the second-base bag. But, Hunt recovered in time to fire a strike to the plate, where Chevalier put the tag on Roh attempting to score.
• In the seventh, Aubrey Hensley led off with a single for the Rockets, and after a force play, an Eli Enriquez base hit put runners on first and second. Bolding popped up to Martin at third for the second out, but Miller reached on an error to load the bases. Gober took three consecutive balls from Beckham, but the BG sophomore worked the count to full before getting the UT freshman to hit a game-ending fly ball to Simko in left.
• Beckham fired her first complete-game shutout of the season and the second of her BGSU career. She scattered six hits in the win, walking two batters and hitting one. Beckham threw 61 of her 91 total pitches for strikes.
• McDonald took the loss, allowing five runs (three earned) and six hits in six innings. She struck out four Falcons, but walked four and hit two.
• Chevalier was 2-for-2 with an RBI, while Steffes had two triples in four trips, driving in a run as well. Martin was 1-for-1 with a single, a walk and a hit-by-pitch.
• Hensley went 2-for-2 for the visitors.

BGSU-UT GAME TWO – HOW IT HAPPENED
• In the second game, both BGSU starter Madison Wendel and Mady Yackee retired the side in order. Wendel worked around a Gober single to begin the second inning, setting down the next six Rockets. The BG sophomore needed just four pitches (all strikes) to retire the side in the third.
• Meanwhile, the Falcons took the lead in the second. Yackee retired the first two batters, but hit Chevalier with a pitch, then plunked Kaufman just two pitches later. Ava McKee hit the very next pitch into shallow left-center to plate the game's first run, with Chevalier coming around from second.
• Wendel needed just 25 pitches to get through the first three innings, but the Rockets got on the board in the fourth. Bolding led off with a single, and advanced to third on a double off the bat of Miller. Each of the next two Rockets hit sacrifice flies, with Gober and Pudlowski each scoring a teammate from third.
• After two more UT singles, Beckham entered the circle for the Falcons. Hensley, the first batter she faced, reached on an infield error which would have loaded the bases. But, Maloney rounded third and was tagged out as she scrambled to get back to the bag, ending the inning.
• Hunt hit the first pitch of the Falcon fourth over the head of center fielder Bolding for a leadoff double, and Martin's sac bunt advanced pinch-runner Delaney Davis to third. Davis tagged and scored on Chevalier's sac fly, beating the throw home with a headfirst slide that tied the game, 2-2.
• Kaufman followed with an epic at-bat, fouling off seven pitches before driving a 3-2 pitch to the base of the wall for a double on the 12th pitch of the plate appearance. That ended Yackee's day, but McDonald came on and got the final out of the inning.
• But, the visitors took the lead with a four-run fifth. Enriquez singled with one out, and a single by Bolding and a walk to Miller loaded the bases. Gober's fly ball was caught for the second out, but a run scored when the throw home skipped away. Pudlowski followed with a drive to left for a three-run homer and a 6-2 lead.
• The Falcons cut that four-run deficit in half in the bottom of the fifth. With one out, Steffes walked on four pitches, and Simko's roller was picked up by catcher Hensley, who had no play. Behrendt followed the Simko single by walking to load the bases, and Hunt's base hit down the left-field line plated both Steffes and Simko.
• But, with runners at first and second, McDonald recovered to strike out the next two Falcons to end the threat.
• Hensley walked to begin the sixth, and Mackenzie Krafcik entered the game and retired the next two hitters. Bolding singled to put runners at the corners, but Krafcik got Miller to hit a fly ball to Matthews in right that ended the inning.
• Kaufman walked to begin the BG sixth, but was ruled out at second on a very close play after Ray's ground ball. Then, a strikeout and a ground ball to second ended the inning.
• Krafcik retired the Rockets in order in the seventh, but McDonald did the same to the Falcons in the bottom of the frame to close out the win.
• UT had a 10-5 advantage in hits, but Bolding going 3-for-4 with two runs scored. Pudlowski had the three-run homer and drove in four of her team's six runs.
• Hunt had two of BG's five hits, driving in two runs.

UP NEXT
• The Falcons head to Athens this weekend, taking on Ohio University in a three-game series. The Falcons and Bobcats will play a Saturday (April 11) doubleheader beginning at 1:00 p.m. at Ohio Softball Field.
• Then, the teams will close their three-game series with a Sunday (April 12) single game, starting at 12:00 p.m.
• After a non-conference trip to Michigan next Wednesday evening, April 15, the Falcons will then play eight consecutive games at home, with three-game sets vs. both Northern Illinois (April 17-18) and Massachusetts (April 24-25) and a non-league doubleheader against Oakland on Tuesday, April 28.
return to Meserve Field on Wednesday (April 8) for a doubleheader. First pitch of game one is set for 1:00 p.m.
• Then, the Orange and Brown will head to Athens for a three-game weekend series vs. Ohio. The Falcons and Bobcats will meet in a Saturday (April 11) twinbill and a Sunday (April 12) single game.

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