FIRST PITCH...
• The Bowling Green State University softball team begins Mid-American Conference play this weekend, heading to Western New York for a three-game series against the University at Buffalo. Head coach Michelle Gardner and the Falcons will meet the Bulls in a Friday (March 14) single game beginning at 3:00 p.m., followed by a 1:00 p.m. doubleheader on Saturday (March 15) at Nan Harvey Field.

• Then, BGSU will open the home portion of the 2025 schedule on Tuesday (March 18), taking on Green Bay in a 1:00 p.m. twinbill at Meserve Field.

NOTEWORTHY
• The Falcons went 2-2 in last weekend's Hoosier Classic, with wins over UIC and IU Indianapolis. BGSU has five wins this season after posting six victories during all of last year.

• The top-three hitters in the BGSU batting order – junior Katie Hutter, redshirt freshman Addie Martin and junior Hannah Hunt – combined to bat .514 (18-for-35) at the Hoosier Classic. That trio had a combined slugging percentage of 1.000.

• Hunt hit .615 in the four games in Bloomington, going 8-for-13, while Hutter batted .556 with a team-leading on-base percentage of .667. Martin hit .385 on the weekend, and homered in three of the four games. Both Hunt and Martin had a 1.077 slugging pct. in the IU tourney.

• In the circle, Scarlet Anderson pitched in relief in all four games of the Hoosier Classic, with a win, a save and a 1.66 earned-run average. She threw 3 2/3 innings of shutout, two-hit relief against UIC, picking up the save in that 7-6 win. Then, Anderson threw five innings of scoreless ball against IU Indy, allowing just three hits.

• The Falcons have hit 14 homers in 20 games this season, nearly doubling the total for all of last year. The 2024 club had eight round-trippers in 44 games.

• Martin has seven homers this season. No BGSU player had more than six during all of last year.

• Hutter and Martin led off last Monday night's (March 3) game at Coastal Carolina with back-to-back homers. It marked the second time this season that BGSU homered twice in the same inning. Peyton Steffes and Hunt both went deep in the fifth inning of a win over Monmouth on Feb. 8.

• The CCU game marked the first time BGSU had hit back-to-back dingers in over three years, since Feb. 26, 2022. The Falcons played two games at the NC State Invitational that day, and had back-to-back jacks in both games.

• On that date, Peyton Dolejs and Bailey Sample had back-to-back homers against Central Connecticut State, with Reagan Williamson and Lexi Carver doing the same against Delaware.

WELCOME (BACK)!
• The 2025 season is Michelle Gardner's first at the BGSU helm, but she is certainly no stranger to Bowling Green. Gardner's coaching career began at BGSU in 1992, as an assistant under head coach Jacquie Joseph.

• That 1992 team went 37-16 overall, setting school records for wins and winning percentage (.698). The '92 squad is still tied for the most wins in a season in BGSU history, while the winning percentage ranks second.

• The '92 team finished second in the MAC, and the 1993 season saw Joseph, Gardner and the Falcons win a MAC title and advance to the NCAA Championships. That team went 34-18 overall and 26-9 in conference play.

• Gardner's wealth of coaching experience includes head-coaching tenures at both Nevada (2003-08) and Indiana (2009-17), as well as time on the staffs at Arizona State, Florida State and Coastal Carolina.

ABOUT THE FALCONS
• The Falcons are 5-15 on the young season, and BGSU is just one win away from matching the win total for all of last year (6-38).

• BGSU began the season with five games at the Spartan Classic, hosted by USC Upstate (Feb. 7-9), and the Orange and Brown picked up a pair of wins over Monmouth in that tourney, including a 9-1 victory on day two.

• Then, BGSU went 1-4 at the Norman Tournament, turning some heads on the final day of that tourney (Feb. 24). The Falcons battled #2/2 Oklahoma to extra innings before falling, 8-5. Then, BG headed to a different field to turn around and immediately play a Tulsa team that had blanked the Falcons, 7-0, the previous day.

• The Falcons played six games in Conway, S.C. (Feb. 28-March 3), including five at the Chanticleer Showdown, before wrapping up the pre-conference schedule with four games at last weekend's Hoosier Classic (March 7-8).

• Three of the Falcons' losses have come against teams currently in the top 25 in the nation in the latest RPI rankings, and a total of 12 of BG's setbacks are against teams ranked 91st or better.

• Head coach Michelle Gardner and her staff – Greg McQuillin, Tegan Cortelletti and Indya Smith – have 14 returning letterwinners, including four positional starters, from the 2024 club. Additionally, five of the seven pitchers from a season ago are on the '25 roster.

• The Falcons' youthful opening-day lineup this season included two true freshmen, one redshirt freshman, three sophomores and four juniors.

• Six Falcons have started all 20 games this season to date. That group includes Taylor Behrendt, Hannah Hunt, Katie Hutter, Cameron Kaufman, Addie Martin and Peyton Steffes. Hanna Massaro has made 19 starts, Ashley Chevalier 18 and Kendall Mathews 15.

• Hunt leads the Falcons with a .387 batting average, while Hutter is hitting .364. Martin and Behrendt are batting .311 and .309, respectively. Martin and Hunt each have 15 RBI and Kaufman 10.

• Martin leads the team with seven homers, 20 runs scored (no Falcon had more than 14 during all of last season), five stolen bases and a .721 slugging percentage. Hutter paces the Orange and Brown with an on-base pct. of .456.

• In the circle, six different players have made at least one start, with a pair of freshmen combining to start 11 games. Morgan Beckham has made six starts and Sydney Marshall five. Scarlet Anderson has pitched in 14 games, including 13 in relief, and has a team-low 3.61 ERA and a team-high 42 2/3 innings pitched to date.

• A total of 10 returnees made at least 10 starts last spring. Sophomores Kaufman and Behrendt started 40 and 28 games, respectively, as freshmen a year ago. Kaufman, a shortstop, hit .234 to lead the BG returnees. Wynnie Reid (26), Chevalier (24) and Anderson (22) each made over 20 starts in '24.

• In the circle, Mackenzie Krafcik made 16 appearances, including 12 starts, and threw 58 2/3 innings last season, leading the returning pitchers in all three categories.

THE OPPONENTS / THE SERIES
• Buffalo is 3-16 on the season, heading into the BGSU series. Emily Gorman is batting a team-high .404 to date, while Mia Mitchell is hitting .344 with a UB-best three homers. In the circle, three players have pitched in at least 12 games and have made at least five starts. Of that group, Genevieve Longsdorf has a team-low 4.85 ERA and a team-high 32 strikeouts. Head coach Mike Reuchel's club went 16-32 overall and 7-18 in MAC play last season.

• Green Bay is 6-8 heading into a weekend series at Northern Kentucky. The Phoenix also will play a Monday game at Ohio State before meeting BGSU the following day. Green Bay is coming off of a pair of wins over Western Illinois last weekend, with a combined 20 runs in those games. Sara Ebner is hitting .471 this season, with 11 walks and a .587 on-base pct., while Paige Hanson and Kendal Herschbach are batting .381 and .362, respectively. Ava Schill has a team-low 4.62 ERA, while Genesis Eggart leads the Phoenix in wins (three) and strikeouts (26). Last season, head coach Sara Kubuske's team went 9-38 overall and 5-19 in the Horizon League.

• BGSU leads Buffalo, 33-23, in the all-time series, but the Bulls captured two of last season's three games at Meserve Field. BGSU picked up a 5-4 victory in the middle game of the series. BGSU's last trip to Nan Harvey Field saw the Bulls sweep a three-game set two years ago. The Falcons are 16-12 in home games, 14-11 in road tilts and 3-0 in neutral-site meetings with the Bulls through the years.

• BGSU leads Green Bay, 3-0, in that series. The teams' last meeting saw the Falcons capture a 13-0 decision three years ago (March 5, 2022), at the Evansville Invitational. The other two matchups both game in 2017 in Louisville, Ky., with BGSU winning by scores of 15-4 and 4-1.

DOWN THE ROAD
• The Green Bay twinbill begins a 10-game homestand for the Falcons. BGSU will begin the home portion of the MAC schedule with a three-game series vs. Kent State on Friday and Saturday, March 21-22, with a Friday single game followed by a Saturday doubleheader.

• Then, after a midweek (Wed., March 26) double-dip vs. Youngstown State, the Orange and Brown will welcome Ball State to Meserve Field for a three-game series the following weekend (Friday-Saturday, March  28-29).

FOLLOW THE FALCONS
• For more information on the BGSU softball team, follow the Falcons on Twitter/X (@BGAthletics and @BGSUSoftball) and Instagram (@bgsu_softball) as well as on the web at BGSUFalcons.com.