BGSU softball (12-8) continues into its sixth week of competition in the 2026 season, with a 12-8 record through all of pre-conference play. Their first games of Mid-American Conference play this season, the Falcons play Central Michigan in a three-game series that doubles as their first time hosting at Meserve Field in 2026.
Four games above .500 is an impressive mark for head coach Michelle Gardner in just her second season at the helm. In 2025, BG went 5-15 in a difficult pre-MAC schedule, adding three more in mid-week non-conference games.
The team has improved seven wins from 2025 and 11 from 2024 through the same mark in the season, at the start of conference play.
BG has six non-conference games left, with two of them against Big Ten opponents (Ohio State and Michigan), but turns its focus toward conference play, which begins at home against a 2025 MAC Tournament team.
Central Michigan
The Chippewas ended their season in 2025 on a sour note after finishing as the third seed (of six) in the MAC tournament. They lost their first-round matchup to No. 6 Northern Illinois by just one run, then lost their next game to No. 5 Akron by seven runs, the victims of two of only three upsets in the entire playoff.
Luckily for head coach McCall Salmon, they lost only one everyday player. Unfortunately, the loss was sophomore Carly Sleeman, a First Team All-MAC catcher who led the team in nearly every offensive category, including batting average, OPS, home runs, and walks.
Sleeman currently is Kentucky’s designated player and catcher when needed. She is hitting .410 with a 1.091 OPS and 22 RBIs through nonconference and a series of SEC play.
Besides the all-conference batter, Central Michigan returns nearly everyone, including three fielders who are hitting above .350 and four who hit above a 1.000 OPS. The team batting average of .311 is third in the MAC, representative of the Chippewas being among the conference leaders in offense.
CMU finished third in the MAC last season, much due to their pitching, whose ERA stayed under 4.0 to end the season and allowed the second-least earned runs in the MAC. The leader of this success was Mackenzie Langan, who finished under 3.0 in ERA and allowed the fewest earned runs of any qualified pitcher in the MAC (53 in 126 innings).
Like Sleeman, Langan also earned First Team All-MAC honors, the first of her career.
The effect of Sleeman’s loss, mainly as a catcher, may have impacted Langan and the pitching staff. Through, granted difficult, non-conference play, Central Michigan’s two main starters, Langan and Brooklyn Compau, have allowed about a 4.5 ERA, with a 7-7 record.
In fact, Compau may be out-performing Langan so far, making one less start but pitching 5.1 more innings and allowing just two more earned runs. The junior also has a .281 batting average allowed, which is .050 lower than Langan’s.
Still holding an offense and pitching staff that are among the top three in the MAC, CMU had a battle-tested first 19 games, finishing with just nine wins and 10 losses. However, they have played in six one-run losses with a two-run loss to Iowa State and a win against Minnesota 5-3.
Central Michigan met Bowling Green last season at their home in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, at the end of April. The Chippewas swept the Falcons, scoring 17 runs and the staff allowed just six in 21 combined innings.
Bowling Green
Gardner and the Falcons come off their final series of the pre-MAC season, taking two of three at Charleston Southern, a series set up to mirror the single-game Friday then double-header Saturday format of the MAC regular season.
A solid series for BG, the biggest star was senior pitcher Mackenzie Krafcik, who tossed 14 innings and no earned runs against the Buccaneers. She took both wins from CSU, the second time this season she has taken back-to-back wins.
The middle game, BG’s only loss, was not poorly pitched by CMU transfer Madison Wendel. She allowed 8 hits in six innings and earned four runs against, no strikeouts, but with no walks either.
BG has scored 5+ runs in 11 games this season, and three games scoring exactly four. The Falcon offense put up just one run on a double in the sixth inning of Wendel’s start, thus BG lost 4-1.
Krafcik and Wendel are the two main starter options for the Falcons, with 17 of BG’s 20 games being started by one of the two. Gardner also has sophomore Morgan Beckham, who started 14 games last year but has just one start and allowed less than a run per inning in just two of seven appearances this year.
The Falcons host CMU for the first time since 2024 with a chance at beating the Chippewas for the first time since the MAC tournament in 2022. BG also has not won at Meserve Field since April 12, 2025, against Western Michigan, a two-pitcher three-hit shutout for the Orange and Brown.
Bowling Green plays Central Michigan in a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 14, and plays a single game at noon on Sunday. The Falcon Media Sports Network will broadcast all three games on WBGU 88.1 FM.
