There must be something special about the Bowling Green softball team’s 34th game of the season.
Last year, the Falcons were 14-19 going into that game and used their next 17 games to go 13-4. And after this past weekend, it looks as if though BG is going for that feat again.
The Falcons capped off their four-game weekend with four shutouts, four wins and a lot of momentum and pushed their record to 17-20 overall and 5-4 in the Mid-American Conference.
BG is looking to translate this momentum into more wins just like it did one year ago.
“I hope that’s the case,” BG head coach Leigh Ross-Shaw said. “I have no explanation for that. I just know it takes a while for us to get our confidence.”
No matter what the case is, the Falcons are now four wins better. Their weekend started out with a pair of MAC wins over Ball State and ended with two non conference wins yesterday over IPFW at the BGSU Softball Field.
The first win yesterday didn’t come easy for BG.
They managed just three hits against Mastadons pitchers Kady Elliot and Beth Harmon and didn’t have a hit until the fourth inning.
“The first game I was wondering what that girl was throwing a no-hitter in the fourth inning,” Ross-Shaw said. “To come out of a slump is to go out and have confidence.”
And while the Falcons didn’t necessarily set the world on fire, they did manage to walk away from game one with a 4-0 win.
Some of that can be attributed to mistakes by the Mastadons’ defense.
In the second inning of the game, BG first baseman Allison Vallas drew a walk and advance to second on a wild pitch. Then Kristen Anderson reached base on a fielder’s choice that was supposed to get Vallas out at third but instead turned into an errant throw that scored Vallas and moved Anderson to third. The next batter up was D.J. Delong, who grounded out to second and knocked in Anderson to give BG a 2-0 lead.
The Falcons struck again in the fourth but this time didn’t need any help from the Mastadons as Jeanine Baca and Gina Rango led the inning off with a pair of doubles that would help the Falcons score two more runs and leave the first game with a win.
The second game was a bit easier for BG as they won 8-0 in six innings.
The Falcons used 12 hits –most of them timely –to roar out of the weekend.
A two out Gina Rango double in the third inning gave BG two runs.
That was followed up by three runs with two outs in the fourth inning and another three runs with two outs in the bottom of the sixth to give the Falcons a run rule victory.
“I just wish we had the same sense of urgency with no outs,” Ross-Shaw said.
The reason for the Falcons dominance over the weekend wasn’t the hitting, though.
Liz Vrabel started Saturday out by throwing a four-hit shutout against Ball State and Kristen Anderson shut down IPFW in yesterday’s game one.
Those two starts were offset by Emily Gouge’s pair of shut out performances. The freshman threw 13 innings over the weekend, allowing just six hits and striking out 14.
In the weekend’s last game, Gouge wasn’t under the pressure her teammates were under the rest of the weekend thanks to BG’s hitting.
“When they get runs, we know there’s not going to be as much pressure to pitch perfect,” Gouge said. “I know that if I miss it won’t hurt us.”
It’s been 27 innings since the Falcons have given up a run, they will have a chance to continue that streak this afternoon when they take on Oakland in Rochester, Mich. in a double header.
“[Our pitchers] do exactly what they’re told,” Ross-Shaw said. “They’re not letting the pressure get to them. I have to applaud our pitchers and pitching staff.”
