BGSU softball has completed their first winless weekend of the Michelle Gardner era in her return to Conway, S.C. for Coastal Carolina’s “Chanticleer Showdown.” Bowling Green’s opponents, and losses, included two against UConn, Wisconsin and Coastal Carolina, each certainly respectable teams.
Friday 2/28:
UConn over Bowling Green 8-7
Saturday 3/1:
Wisconsin over Bowling Green 6-5
UConn over Bowling Green 4-0
Sunday 3/2:
Wisconsin over Bowling Green 10-2 (6 inn.)
Coastal Carolina over Bowling Green 9-1 (5 inn.)
Monday 3/3:
Coastal Carolina over Bowling Green 9-5
Tightening up
Losses are losses no matter how it happens. Yet BG Softball has played some pretty nice games through three of the four days.
In the first two games of the weekend, BG held leads in the sixth inning against UConn and the fifth against Wisconsin. Unfortunately, they failed to hold on, losing by one in both games on comeback efforts by the competitor.
In the 5-9 loss to Coastal Carolina, BG only trailed two runs heading into the fifth inning, also totaling the same number of hits as the Chanticleers through seven innings. The Falcon lineup had also outhit their opponents 30-23 in the 21 innings between the three games.
Even though they were losses, they were impressive displays to hang with teams who are quite a margin more talented and more accomplished in their own conferences. On three of the days, Friday, Saturday and Monday, BG was only outscored a margin of 26-17, quite impressive against a Big10, Big East and Sun Belt opponent.
Early ins, late outs
Gardner’s team has adored getting on the board early, although sustaining the offense has been more of a struggle.
In the first three innings of all six games, Bowling Green knocked in 13 of their 20 total runs, 65 percent of their total runs scored in the weekend in 43 percent of their innings. Meanwhile, they held the Huskies, Badgers and Chanticleers to 20 runs of 46 total, 43 percent of their runs scored in 43 percent of their innings.
Clearly, in the back “half” of games, BG is in a scoring rut. They have scored only seven runs in 24 innings, allowing 26 to their opponents.
Why? The scoring decrease is indicated by teams bringing in generally better pitchers to throw against Bowling Green and ensure that Falcons are held off of the board. The best example is the final game against C. Carolina in which they brought in their three best pitchers for the final five innings against BG following a four run first two innings for the Orange and Brown.
The pitching answer, however, is not so cut and dry. It seems as if Falcon pitching has been, at the least, consistent, showing less steep drop off in certain innings. However, it is inconsistent on who pitches well and poorly, players who pitched very well the day before struggling in similar situations the day following.
Hitting deep
The bottom of Bowling Green’s order has shown drastic and immediate improvement from the first two weekends of the season in which they were anemic and contributed very minimally to the offense of Bowling Green.
Friday’s game against UConn brought the five through nine hitters to the limelight. Those bottom five hitters ripped eight hits, five walks, five RBIs, five runs, and only two strikeouts. Meanwhile, the top four hitters had only three hits, four walks, two RBIs, two runs, and three strikeouts.
The next game they had similar success, four hits, four RBIs, and a run scored. The final game had similar success to the second, three hits, five walks, one RBI, and one run.
Notice how all three times the bottom of the order performed well, BGSU also had better games? The Falcons getting the bottom of their batting order active is a big instigator of big offense. Especially since it takes a massive weight off the production of the top of the order.
Standouts
Hutter had a fantastic series in South Carolina, the best of her three series so far. The junior batted leadoff in all six games, only hitless in five at-bats against Wisconsin and C. Carolina.
Hutter demonstrated both hitting tools on her four extra-base hits as well as great contact and situational hitting, reaching base almost half as many times as she had at-bats. This is a breakout season for her as well, batting sub .200 each of the last two seasons and combatting it with a .326 batting average this season, second on the team in both that and OPS (.939).
As well as being maybe the most solid defender on the field, Kaufman held strong in the meat of the batting order. Batting fourth, she did not land as many RBIs as you might expect but affected four of the six games positively.
Coming into the season, Kaufman had the most on-the-field experience of any player on the Falcons, still the most experienced in the starting lineup. She is knocking .260 with a respectable .747 OPS in 2024 and is a double machine, seven almost doubling the next closest Falcon.
Through the hardest part of the schedule in 2025, Kaufman has a .030 higher batting average, .190 higher OPS, and more doubles and RBIs than in 2024.
Up Next
Gardner and the Falcons play their northernmost games in 2025 in Bloomington, Ind. from March 7 through March 9 before jumping into MAC play. Their opponents include Illinois-Chicago and Indiana twice as well as Indiana-Indianapolis once in the 2025 Hoosier Classic.
Indiana (12-5) is a very good team, especially for Bowling Green standards. However, the other two opponents total 7-28 with some poor losses, three winnable games for BG considering their recent foes.
