After losing three of its last four games, the Bowling Green softball team returns home this weekend against Miami and

Ball State.

The Falcons have a long home stretch moving forward, playing 16 of their next 17 at Meserve Field.

“We are looking forward to playing at home the next few weeks,” head coach Shannon Salsburg said. “Every week in the MAC is so pivotal and to play at home is huge.”

The Falcons enter the game 12-16 overall and 3-3 in the Mid-American Conference. They are up against two .500-or-better teams in the Red Hawks and Cardinals who are 21-14 and 18-18 respectively.

With a doubleheader against Miami, who are 5-1 for first place in the MAC east division, the Falcons have a chance to move in the standings and bring the Red Hawks down from that top spot.

The Red Hawks are the better team on paper, winning most matchups in the box. Miami has 78 more hits than Bowling Green, 48 more RBIs and lead in batting average, doubles and triples. But the Falcons lead in homeruns with 19 to the Red

Hawks 13.

They will look to add to those homeruns again this weekend after sophomore Aspen Searle and freshman Kayla Koch hit multiple longballs last week. Searle, along with sophomore Trista Mokienko, combine for more than half of the homeruns hit this year with 11.

Searle has been strong all season for the Falcons. The second year player has hit a homer in the team’s last three doubleheaders and has eight so far compared to just three all of last season. She is batting .557 when leading off in an inning and is 30-53 when doing so. She leads the team in RBIs, homeruns, runs, hits, doubles, total bases and slugging percentage and is third on the team in batting average.

Also leading the offense this year is senior Chloe Giordano, who is second on the team in doubles, just two behind Searle. Giordano had a total of six doubles in her first three years with the team but already has seven so far this season.

The team will look to use that offense quick against Miami and Ball State, something that they have been strong all year. The Falcons have scored 44 first inning runs so far this season. They have first inning runs scored in 10 out of their 12 wins so far.

The team will play its doubleheader against Miami on Friday starting at 1 p.m. and then will play a single against Ball State on Saturday and Sunday.