BGSU softball (6-17, 1-2 MAC) begins the home campaign on Tuesday, March 18 at 1 p.m. when the Green Bay Phoenix (6-11, 0-3 Horizon League) come to town for two games at Meserve Field.
BG started off Mid-American Conference (MAC) play with a win and two losses against Buffalo (5-17, 2-1 MAC) this past weekend, rolling the Bulls in the Friday opener before being defeated in both Saturday games, giving the Falcons a losing record after the opening conference series.
The Tuesday doubleheader against the Phoenix begins a 10 game home stand for the Falcons that also features weekend MAC series against Kent State (7-19, 0-3 MAC) and Ball State (15-7, 2-1 MAC) with a non-conference doubleheader against Youngstown State (4-21, 0-3 Horizon League) on Wednesday, March 26 sandwiched between them.
Green Bay has played Bowling Green only three times in history, with the Falcons winning the most recent matchup 13-0 in a five-inning victory at the UE Softball Invitational in Evansville, Indiana in 2022.
Falcon Forecast
As head coach Michelle Gardner prepares for her first series in front of the Falcon faithful, the squad is riding outstanding weekends from multiple Falcons in their series against Buffalo, including infielder Taylor Behrendt’s seven hits across the three games with three in both Friday’s game and Saturday’s game one.
Outfielder Peyton Steffes was on fire, going 2-4 in the first two games of the series and following it up with a three hit game three, earning four RBIs in the process.
Both these players will look to carry that momentum into Tuesday’s match alongside senior pitcher Scarlet Anderson, who continues to be the icon of the Falcon pitching staff with her 3.10 ERA that is sixth best in the MAC while not allowing a run in six of her last seven outings.
The Falcons sit fifth in the MAC with 15 home runs on the year, and their .405 slugging percentage is good for seventh in that category. A 6.50 team ERA is a mark that the team will look to improve on in their extended homestand, as the staff has also allowed 162 runs on a .332 opponent batting average, third worst in the MAC in both categories.
Green Bay Phoenix (6-11, 0-3 Horizon League)
The Phoenix had a rough start to their conference slate over the weekend, getting swept by Northern Kentucky, getting outscored 28-10 and no-hit in an 8-0 loss to the Norse in game one on Friday.
Green Bay will take on Ohio State in a Monday afternoon ahead of their doubleheader with the Falcons on Tuesday, meaning they will have played six games in five days dating back to Friday.
Redshirt freshman Sara Ebner has been the leader of a Phoenix offense that contains four batting averages over .300, with Ebner hitting .450 with an OPS of 1.141. Juniors Paige Hanson and Kendal Herschbach join Ebner with their respective averages of .380 and .375 and Herschbach’s 21 hits leading the team.
The Phoenix have struggled with power in 2025, hitting only one home run in 16 games despite having three hitters in the top five in the Horizon League in batting average.
The Northern Kentucky series tanked a Green Bay pitching staff that was second in the Horizon League in ERA coming into the weekend, going from a 4.93 ERA on Thursday to a 6.34 after games concluded on Saturday.
Graduate student Genesis Eggart allowed 10 runs in only 5.1 innings on the mound against the Norse and sophomore Ava Schill, who threw an eight-inning shutout only two outings previous to allowing five earned runs in her game one start.
