Despite wind gusts over 30 miles per hour that turned a sunny 45-degree day at Meserve Field in Bowling Green, Ohio into a chilly, miserable March afternoon, the stands were packed as freshman pitcher Morgan Beckham forced Kent State first baseman Savannah Wing to pop out to second base, earning BGSU softball (10-18, 4-2 MAC) their third straight victory and their first sweep of a Mid-American Conference (MAC) opponent since April of 2022.
“I’m gonna keep pushing them, but my pushing and somebody else’s pushing might be completely different,” head coach Michelle Gardner said after the 9-7 victory on Saturday. “I just have to believe in them, and they’re starting to feel it, you can see it. They’re walking along, they’re holding their heads high a bit, and that’s what I want.”
After a 4-1 week that combines the sweep of Kent State with a doubleheader split against Green Bay (7-16, 0-6 Horizon) on Tuesday, The Falcons go 4-2 in MAC play for the first time since 2012 thanks to unpredictable improvements across the roster.
This week’s results looked like this:
March 18- Bowling Green def. Green Bay 6-1
March 18- Green Bay def. Bowling Green 3-2
March 21- Bowling Green def. Kent State 10-2 (six inn.)
March 21- Bowling Green def. Kent State 7-6
March 22- Bowling Green def. Kent State 9-7
Offensive Onslaught
A confident and deep Falcon offense paired with a Kent State pitching staff that is the worst in the MAC in terms of team ERA was a recipe for success, as the Falcons scored 26 runs across the series, a mark the program hasn’t exceeded within any three-game stretch since April 2011.
Redshirt freshman Addie Martin stole the show this week, earning 11 hits on two home runs, five RBIs, and seven runs while advancing herself further in the running for an All-MAC First Team bid.
Martin now sits fourth in the MAC with a 1.168 OPS on the year thanks to 10 home runs, 31 hits, and 20 RBIs. Despite these marks, Martin is still only third on the team with a .348 batting average.
“I feel like every time we went up there, everyone was seeing the ball great,” Martin said after the sweep on Saturday. “We just knew what we were looking for. Coach always told us just to think down because of the wind, so we were all focusing on down balls.”
Infielders Taylor Behrendt and Hannah Hunt, after a 2024 season where they combined for a .380 batting average in 106 at-bats, have doubled their output with a combined .716 average in 2025. Behrendt’s five hits on the week nearly matched Hunt’s six, as the duo has become a staple in the middle of the Falcon order.
Corner outfielders shined in the Kent State series, with junior Delaney Davis hitting a walk-off pinch-hit double and earning herself a spot in the starting lineup for game three, where she didn’t disappoint, going 3-4 and earning three of the nine Falcon RBIs as part of an impressive day that was only her fourth start of the year.
Rockford native Peyton Steffes continued to stay hot at the plate on a seven-hit week that followed up her impressive seven-hit weekend against Buffalo (5-20, 2-4 MAC) in the MAC-opening series, as she now hits .306 while utilizing her speed both on the basepaths with six stolen bases and in the outfield with her .949 fielding percentage.
Tremendous Trifecta
The Falcons needed that second and third pitcher to come to fruition if a pitching staff that struggled against a tough opening schedule was going to improve, and their wish was met, with junior Mackenzie Krafcik and Beckham joining senior Scarlet Anderson as a trio that proved to be dangerous this past week.
Krafcik’s improvement has come at the perfect time for the Falcons, as she threw 10.2 innings of one-earned ball in the weekend series against Buffalo and followed it up this week with a stint that was even more impressive, throwing 17.2 innings and allowing only three earned runs in the process.
Beckham has seemed to settle into a role as a back-end pitcher after a week where she improved her ERA by nearly two points, throwing 3.2 innings without an earned run in game three against the Flashes on top of six more innings throughout the rest of the week.
The Falcons now hold two players in the top ten of the MAC ERA rankings, with Anderson’s 3.13 just eclipsing the top five. Krafcik has achieved her 3.60 ERA without many strikeouts, achieving only 15, which is about one every three innings that she has thrown this year.
What’s Next
The Falcons will take on Youngstown State (5-24, 1-5 Horizon) for a non-conference doubleheader at Meserve Field on Wednesday with game one starting at 2 p.m.
Bowling Green will end off their homestand with a three-game series against Ball State (18-8, 4-2 MAC), with game one on Friday at 3 p.m. and games two and three coming in the form of a Saturday doubleheader with the first game starting at 1 p.m.
