It was a poor weekend for the Bowling Green softball team as it went 0-3 in the Hoosier Classic in Bloomington, Indiana.
The team fell to 11-14 on the season and currently has a 10-10 record at neutral sites.
The first game was played against Indiana Purdue Fort Wayne in the first game of Friday’s doubleheader.
The first score of the game came from first at-bat, Haley Schrock, who hit a home run.
IPFW was in a position to score at the bottom of the second inning as two runners were on first and second. A hit towards Schrock nabbed the base runner heading for second and fired a strike to first, resulting in a double play.
It wasn’t until the bottom of the seventh inning when an IPFW player hit a triple towards center field as it put IPFW in a position to win the game. IPFW hit a grounder, resulting in a fielder’s choice and giving the team a 2-1 win over the Falcons.
The second game of the doubleheader was against Western Illinois on Friday afternoon.
Western Illinois scored quickly as pitcher Brooke Parker gave up a home run in the bottom of the first.
A series of runs came in the top of the second for BG as Molly Holliday hit a single towards center field. Western Illinois then had a series of errors, causing four unearned runs for the Falcons, giving them the 4-2 lead over Western Illinois.
After Kiley Sosby grounded out with a runner on third, Kayla Gregory hit a single up the middle and got an RBI single as Marisa Shook scored, giving the Falcons a 6-2 lead in just the third inning of the game.
Western Illinois responded in the bottom of the fifth as pitcher Kiley Sosby gave up 5 hits, including two doubles and a home run. This gave Western Illinois four runs in the bottom of the fifth before Brooke Parker came back in the game to close the inning.
The deficit was cut to 8-6 going into the sixth inning.
The deciding moment came in the bottom of the seventh as Western Illinois loaded the bases and scored off a fielder’s choice and errors. This gave up three runs, resulteing in Western Illinois getting the walk-off win by a score of 9-8.
BG softball coach Sarah Willis acknowledged that her team had two heartbreaking losses in one day, but she expressed some optimism as more games need to be played.
“Today was a tough day, to say the least,” said Willis. “We will get better. The great thing is that we get a chance to take the field again tomorrow and take a positive step forward.”
The team took the field Saturday morning as they squared off against Michigan State to complete the Hoosier Classic.
BG got on the board in the fifth as Shook hit a single towards the left field line, scoring two runners. The Falcons ended up scoring another run as Schrock hit a single, followed by an error from Michigan State, giving Chelsea Raker the unearned run. BG crawled back into the game down 7-3.
The offense came alive in the sixth and seventh innings for BG as they scored a total of six runs, evening the score with Michigan State at 9-9.
In the end, BG was unable to keep up with Michigan State throughout the game and the Falcons fell 20-13.
The team will look to end this losing streak as they head home to face IPFW at Meserve Field on Wednesday, March 23.
