After a long and well-traveled spring break down south, the softball team will now be heading north. The Falcons will travel to Kalamazoo, Mich. this weekend to take on Western Michigan.
The games, which will take place on Saturday, will be the first Mid-American Conference action for the Falcons this season. The double header is scheduled to start at 1 p.m. at Fran Ebert Field. The start of MAC play for the Falcons is seen as very optimistic for the team this year. The Falcons, who finished 11-13 in conference play last year, didn’t make the MAC tournament for the first time since 1997. This year, however, the team has new hope and behind their great pitching, are 8-9-1.
Going into conference play, the Falcons tend to approach the games a little differently. “Now that we are starting our season, these are the games that count,” head coach Leigh Ross-Shaw said. “This weekend is definitely going to be our nine strongest players out there.”
Coming off two straight losses in Virginia, the Falcons have to regain their intensity in the upcoming games. The team seems to have all the pitching and defense necessary, but just couldn’t hold on to the leads that they had over break.
The Falcons’ coach, however, is glad the spring break road trip is over.
“We were tired towards the end of the trip, but just being back home is nice. Everyone had a chance to get her things back in line and feel a little more rested. The team is ready to start conference play, and we want to see where we stack up in the conference.” The below .500 non-conference record, however, doesn’t seem to bother the Falcons going into conference play. “We try to focus on our performance and not the wins and losses,” Ross-Shaw said. “In every game we have to take something away, we can’t focus on ‘hey we lost that game, poor us.’ Many times I think losing a game makes us more focused,” Ross-Shaw added.
Following the trip to Kalamazoo, the Falcons will finally be hosting their first home game. Bowling Green is scheduled to face up against the Michigan Wolverines in a double header. That game will take place next Tuesday at the BG softball field.
