Cool Hand Stacey

Softball is a sport dominated by pitching; it is extremely difficult for a team to be successful without an ace on the mound to dictate the flow of the game.

Luckily, the UB women's softball team contains the pitching prowess of junior Stacey Evans and will look to her when they take on the Bowling Green Falcons (17-20, 4-4 Mid-American Conference) in a double header at home on Thursday.

Coming off a very successful weekend at Akron in which the Bulls (12-15, 3-3 MAC) took two of three games from the Zips, UB will again rely on Evans to lead the way on the mound as well as look to an emerging offensive cast to put runs on the scoreboard.

"I think with the way our defense has been performing and the way Stacey has been pitching, I believe we have the upper hand against Bowling Green," said senior second baseman Marce Ross. "As long as we can string some hits together and put two or three runs on the board in each game, we will have no problem defeating them."

Evans was recently named the MAC East Division pitcher of the week for the second time this season, marking the fifth time in her career that the right-handed hurler has earned the honor.

For the Bulls, Evans currently owns a 6-6 record and a 1.82 ERA, and has not allowed an earned run in the last 36.2 innings that she has pitched. Even more impressive, Evans has thrown 11 complete games and four shutouts on the season, while holding MAC opponents to a league-low .182 batting average.

The performance of Evans and the other UB pitchers will be especially important because the Falcons are ranked seventh in the MAC in batting and have scored 97 runs this season. Bowling Green has also exploded for 23 runs over their last five games, compared to the Bulls who have only 10.

In terms of offensive power, UB will again rely on the consistent left-handed stroke of senior outfielder Breanne Nasti. On the season, Nasti leads the Bulls in batting with a .365 batting average.

"I don't know much about Bowling Green this year, but I think we're very capable of beating any of our conference opposition, so I am definitely confident," Nasti said. "We showed up this past weekend and hopefully we will bring that energy into our games on Wednesday and keep it going."

To keep things going, however, UB will first have to get by Bowling Green's ace, Liz Vrabel as well as ward off the double threat of Lindsay Heimrich, the current MAC West Player of the Week.

"From what we hear, their number one pitcher throws the ball hard and has a good rise ball, so to be successful against Bowling Green we are going to have to be more disciplined at the plate and stay off the high pitches," said junior outfielder Ann Magur.

Fresh off of a two game sweep of non-conference opponent Oakland University, Heimrich is on a five-game hitting streak, earning her MAC West POW. As if her offensive numbers weren't enough, Heimrich also threw a 2-0 no-hitter against Oakland. The hard-throwing Vrabel holds a 1.31 ERA on the season.

Thursday's double-header will begin at 2 p.m. on Nan Harvey Field and will serve as the home opener for the Bulls.