Nine months removed from a sub-.500 season, the Bowling Green State University softball team is excited to begin the
new season.
Set to take the field for its first regular season action on Sunday, Feb. 7 with its new group of players, the Falcons will bring high energy this weekend, head coach Shannon
Salsburg said.
However, the team features an array of new faces among a considerably young team.
Returning 14 of 24 players including just four seniors and four juniors, BG has brought in two transfer-players as well as
eight freshmen.
“We have such a different team this year,” Salsburg said. “The freshmen are adjusting great and there are a couple kids that we brought in who will be starters on opening day.”
Kayla Koch will be one of those to start. Playing first base, Koch will bring her biggest impact at the plate.
“[Koch] is a heck of a hitter. She’s a long-ball kid,” Salsburg said.
Rotating three different players at first base a year ago and losing more than half of their home runs due to graduation, Koch will be a primary answer to
those questions.
Another freshman expected to start on opening day will be at shortstop, allowing sophomore Aspen Searle, one of three players to hit above .300 last season, to return to her natural position, second base.
“[Aspen Searle] is in a more natural position now,” Salsburg said. “I think we’re going to have one of the best middles in the MAC [Mid-American Conference], quite frankly. Some of the plays they make in practice, I get goosebumps. They both have great gloves and can do some things that
are special.”
The last probable freshman starter for BG is catcher, Morgan Evangelista, the successor to now-graduated Erika Stratton.
Evangelista has a chance to lead the Falcons at the plate and primarily in the power-hitting four-hole, Salsburg said.
The Falcons are not just youth, however.
BG returns four defensive starters as well as four others who received at least 18 starts last season. They also return their two primary starting pitchers, Jamie Kertes and Braiden Dillow who accounted for all 52 starts in the circle for the Falcons last season.
“The leadership from the upperclassmen, especially the seniors, has been huge,” Salsburg said. “It’s going to be a mesh of young and old [this season]. We need our older people to go out and do what they can do and our younger kids just learning on the go and figuring that they wouldn’t be here if they couldn’t play.”
The rest of the MAC understands that the Falcons will be learning on the go, too.
Picked to finish sixth [last place] in the MAC East Division, BG doesn’t have any lofty expectations outside of the program.
However, the Falcons aren’t doubting themselves in the slightest.
“The preseason poll is based on last year. I get it, but we are not the sixth worst team in the MAC, let alone the East,” Salsburg said. “We have championship intent. We believe we can win a championship if we take care of the day-to-day basics.”
This slight in the polls has intensified the teams’
motivation.
“We love it, we’re the underdogs, so it’s time for us to prove them wrong,” said Jamie Kertes, the lone senior starting pitcher on the team who finished with a team-leading 2.42 ERA.
BG realizes that to compete for a championship like they intend to, they must continue to work and grow at each position. If they do so, they will in the conversation at the end,
Salsburg said.
Their journey begins this weekend at the Cleveland State University Dome Tournament where the Falcons will play one game each against Niagara, Bucknell, Canisius and Robert Morris.
“All you can do is learn from last year and move forward and that’s what we’re doing,” she said.
