BGSU softball steps into their final stretch of Mid-American Conference play at 17-22 overall and 5-13 in conference play, two wins from last season’s MAC win total. The Falcons begin this three-series stretch with Northern Illinois, who they have at home this Friday and Saturday.
Bowling Green’s most recent weekend of competition drew lopsided outcomes in each of the three games. Their opponent, Ohio, won the bookends of the series, outscoring a combined 18-4. BG won the middle game, second of a Saturday doubleheader, 8-1.
Morgan Beckham started that middle game, tossing seven innings, allowing one earned run, and gaining her fifth win of the season. In her five starts in MAC play (33 innings), she has allowed only three runs and gained a 4-1 record, the loss coming 1-0 to Kent State.
The sophomore leads MAC pitchers in MAC competition in ERA (2.0), is the only arm who has a complete game in every start, and is third in batting average against (.235).
BG’s pitching staff has the third-best ERA in MAC play, yet the offense is the worst in the conference, last in batting average and OPS. In the last nine games, they have scored more than three runs just four times and have only won two of them.
Last in the MAC in conference-play hits, they have slashed over seven hits twice in the last nine games, winning one of them. In the two losses at Ohio, they had just three hits in each game.
A continuing strive to put both offense and pitching together consistently leads the Falcons home for Northern Illinois, a top team in the conference.
Northern Illinois
The Huskies snuck into the MAC tournament as the sixth and final seed last season, upsetting Central Michigan in the first round before losing two straight. It was the program’s first time making the tournament in back-to-back seasons since 2019.
With three series to go, NIU sits two wins back in last season’s total and is second in the conference, just behind a 15-3 Akron team.
Head coach Kathryn Gleason has performed an impressive turnaround of the team’s offense in 2025. Last season, NIU was in the middle of the MAC in batting average and OPS; this season, first in batting average and second in OPS.
She has three everyday starters ranking from MAC pitching – Danielle Stewart, Izzi Hanna, and Alana Powell – all with a .380+ batting average and .950 OPS. In addition is Rylie Hartman, who has only started 10 games in MAC play but each of the last six, and is hitting .538 with a 1.433 OPS, the team’s leading MAC marks.
As can be expected from a second-place team, NIU puts together a good pitching staff, too. Graduate student Madison Carlson’s seven conference starts, 2.98 ERA, 1.17 whip, and 4 complete games lead the team. She has not yet lost in conference play.
Northern Illinois still needs wins, three behind the leader (Akron), but just one loss better than Miami (OH) in the same number of wins. Bowling Green is second to last in the MAC with nine conference games left, needing to win nearly every game for MAC Tournament hopes.
The two squads square off at Bowling Green’s Meserve Field, BG’s second-to-last home series and NIU’s second-to-last road series. The games, weather permitting, are a doubleheader on Friday, April 17, and a single game on Saturday. Both days start at 1 p.m.
