BGSU softball (3-7) saw success in the concluding doubleheader at the Norman Tournament at Love’s Field with a battle against the four-straight national championship-winning #2/2 Oklahoma Sooners (14-0) that went to extra innings followed by a 9-4 victory over the Tulsa Hurricanes (6-8).
Six Falcon hitters earned at least two hits across both games of the doubleheader, as third baseman Addie Martin and first baseman Taylor Behrendt earned three hits apiece against Tulsa.
Clutch performances in the pitcher’s circle came at important times in both games, as junior Mackenzie Krafcik threw 2.2 innings without an earned run against the Sooners lineup despite allowing the walk-off home run as well as two scoreless innings to close out the win over the Hurricanes.
The Falcons firmly hold the seventh spot in the Mid-American Conference standings, sitting ahead of two squads in Miami (OH) (4-10) and Central Michigan (1-8) who were predicted to finish top five in the conference.
Game one: Bowling Green vs Oklahoma
Leadoff hitter Katie Hutter’s walk set the tone for the top of the first, getting on base with a walk and scoring via a single from second baseman Hannah Hunt. Shortstop Cameron Kaufman scored Hunt on a groundout ahead of catcher Ashley Chevalier’s first hit of the year and an RBI single into left that put the Falcons up 3-0 early on.
Starting pitcher Madi Young made it out of the first unscathed, leaving the bases loaded after striking out designated player Tia Milloy on a nasty low and outside changeup.
A grand slam into dead center in the bottom by first baseman Cydney Sanders got the Sooners back in the game, making the score 4-3 and sending Young out of the game in favor of senior Scarlet Anderson.
BG tied the game up in the fourth inning thanks to center fielder Kendall Matthews’s first RBI of the year, scoring Behrendt and making it a 4-4 game.
Back-to-back doubles by Chevalier and left fielder Peyton Steffes put BG in the lead in the top of the sixth, but Oklahoma threatened in the bottom half, forcing the replacement of Anderson with Krafcik.
Krafcik managed to hold the Sooners to one run in the inning, as the Falcons continued to outhit Oklahoma going into extra innings.
Sophomore Kasidi Pickering ended things in the bottom of the ninth, sending her fourth home run of the season over the Love’s Field fence, and as the Sooners remain as one of four remaining undefeated Southeastern Conference (SEC) teams, the Falcons just short of their first ever victory against a top-five opponent.
Game Two: Tulsa vs Bowling Green
A stellar opening to the game by freshman starting pitcher Sydney Marshall held the Hurricanes scoreless through the first four, and after Martin’s second home run of the year, Tulsa rebounded by scoring three in the top of the fifth which was the end of the day for Marshall.
The Falcons would score two in the bottom half of the fifth via Behrendt’s RBI double, but after Tulsa scores an unearned run via a fielder’s choice on Krafcik, they held a 4-3 lead going into the bottom of the sixth that was a must-score half-inning for the Orange and Brown.
After six runs, four hits, two walks, two strikeouts, one hit-by-pitch, and one wild pitch the Falcons took control of the game, going up 9-4 thanks to clutch knocks from Matthews, Hutter, Kaufman and Behrendt.
Krafcik shut down the Hurricanes in the top of the seventh and secured the third win of the season, a number that took them only 10 games to reach in 2025 contrary to the 21 games necessary in 2024.
Martin and Behrendt secured three hits each as the Falcons reached base 15 times in their first victory against an American Athletic Conference opponent since its inception in 2013.
The Falcons will take a short hiatus in BG before heading back south for the Chanticleer Showdown in Conway, South Carolina where head coach Michelle Gardner formerly coached for two each against UConn (8-5), Wisconsin (9-6) and Coastal Carolina (11-2).
