BGSU softball (13-24, 5-8 MAC) sat in disappointment this week because of a rainstorm that delayed their date with Notre Dame until Thursday, May 1, but they now look forward to a pivotal Mid-American Conference (MAC) homestand that begins with three against the Western Michigan Broncos (10-26, 4-7 MAC).
Meserve Field will host game one of the series on Friday, April 11 at 3 p.m. and games two and three will take place on Saturday, April 12 with the first of two beginning at 1 p.m.
Both teams will see multiple victories as necessary in the weekend series, as the Falcons and the Broncos sit just outside of the MAC Softball Tournament cut off of six teams at seventh and eighth in the standings respectively.
The Falcons are 0-5 in the past two years against WMU, suffering a sweep in a three-game series in 2023 and failing to score a run across a doubleheader in Kalamazoo in 2024.
Falcon Forecast
The Falcons are 1-4 in their past five MAC games after an unsuccessful road trip that saw Akron sweep BG in a midweek doubleheader before Northern Illinois took two of three and held the Falcons to one run across the three-game series.
The offense will be looking to bounce back after a tough week on the road, scoring only one run in the entire series as sophomores Taylor Behrendt and Peyton Steffes combined with juniors Delaney Davis and Katie Hutter to go 0-29 across the series.
Infielders Addie Martin and Hannah Hunt have managed to stay hot, as Hunt carries a new four game hit streak into the WMU series while earning hits in 14 of her 1ast 15 games. Martin hit her 12th home run of the season in game one against the Huskies and earned her 13th multi-hit game of the season in the Falcons’ 7-6 loss to Akron on Tuesday.
The Falcons are seventh in the MAC in team batting average, hitting the sixth most home runs of any team and walking the fifth most batters in the conference.
Junior pitcher Mackenzie Krafcik threw her first career complete shutout in BG’s lone victory of the week, a 1-0 victory over the Huskies, but freshman Morgan Beckham deserves credit as well for her week that has solidified herself as a threat in the Falcon rotation, throwing her best career outing against NIU by allowing two earned runs in six innings of work in what was her third out of four outings on the week.
Beckham allowed one earned run in a four-inning outing against Akron on top of two other outings where she shutout the Huskies in a scoreless inning pitched.
BG sits eighth in the MAC in team ERA, allowing 212 earned runs, 322 hits and 125 walks in 225 innings, marks that are in the bottom three of the conference. The Falcons are 10th in the MAC with their .946 fielding percentage and they have committed 58 errors, holding the conference lead firmly ahead of Toledo with 48.
Western Michigan
After winning a series in Toledo against the Rockets to open MAC play, the Broncos went on an eight-game losing streak, getting swept by Miami (OH) on their home turf before failing to score a run in a Tuesday doubleheader against Central Michigan.
However, the squad bounced back against a struggling Buffalo Bulls team, utilizing home-field advantage to take two of three and position themselves at the forefront of a push for the MAC softball tournament.
Senior Riley Dittmar has been the leader of the 2025 Bronco offense, hitting .391 with a .987 OPS and 11 stolen bases. The former EIU Panther leads WMU in all but a couple of offensive categories, nearly doubling second place with her 43 hits and 23 runs scored.
The Broncos as a team have struggled with consistent run production, scoring only 1four runs per game despite ranking third in the MAC with 32 home runs on the season. Catcher Jordan Smith and third baseman Micaela Booth have had fantastic power bats, hitting eight and seven home runs respectively and joining Toledo as the only MAC team to have four hitters in the top 20 in slugging percentage.
Sophomore pitcher Casey Fazzini has led a struggling Bronco pitching staff in 2025 with her 4.42 ERA in 71.1 innings. Fazzini is coming off a six-inning shutout of the RedHawks on March 29 and two separate outings against the Bulls where she allowed two and one earned runs in 3.1 and three innings respectively.
WMU head coach Marlee Wilson began her head coaching career in 2024 in her first year with the Broncos when she set the program record with 27 wins, the most by a WMU first year head coach. Wilson is a former player for the Broncos and spent two seasons with the Dayton Flyers as an assistant coach.
