Bowling Green State University softball standout Payton Gottshall has been named the Mid-American Conference Pitcher of the Year.
Greta L’Esperance joined Gottshall on the All-MAC First Team. The all-league squad, along with the specialty award winners, was announced on Wednesday by the conference office.
Gottshall is just the second player in school history to be named MAC Pitcher of the Year, joining BGSU Hall-of-Famer Liz Vrabel (2005) on that exclusive list.
Gottshall has been named to the All-MAC First Team for the second time in as many years, while L’Esperance earns All-MAC First-Team accolades for the first time.
Gottshall is the first BGSU player to be named to the All-MAC First Team twice since Jamie Kertes in 2012 and ‘13, and the 12th multiple-time all-league first-teamer in school history.
The Falcons have landed two players on the all-conference first team for the second-straight year, as Gottshall and Madi McCoy were named to the team in 2021. Prior to last season, the Falcons had not had a first-team selection since Katie Yoho in 2014, and had not had multiple first-team picks since 2012 (Kertes and Hannah Fulk).
Gottshall, a native of Massillon (Perry), is 23-10 with a 1.32 ERA and a school-record 325 strikeouts in 212 1/3 innings. She has an opponent batting average of just .154 on the year. A seven-time MAC Pitcher of the Week, Gottshall has recorded the second-highest individual win total in school history and the highest in 30 years.
Gottshall has been even better in MAC play this season. She went 15-6 with an ERA of just 1.15 and 196 strikeouts in 140 innings in conference games..
Gottshall leads the MAC in eight statistical categories, and is ranked 15th or higher in the nation on seven of those lists. She is second in the country in total strikeouts this season. Gottshall is also now second in school history in career strikeouts, and she has added her name to 10 other BGSU career pitching lists as well.
L’Esperance, a native of Byron, Michigan (Byron), is batting a BGSU-best .390, and also leads the Falcons in stolen bases (30) and runs scored (39). Her stolen-base total ties her for third on that BGSU single-season list, and she is tied for fifth in runs and ranks seventh in hits (62) on those school seasonal charts.
L’Esperance leads the MAC and is ranked 16th in the country in stolen bases. She has 59 steals in her BGSU career, and has moved into third place in school history on that list. L’Esperance has a career batting average of .366, which puts her second on that BG career chart.
The Falcons are 30-17 overall, and BGSU ended MAC play with a 16-11 record, good for fourth place in the 11-team league. BG’s total of 30 wins this season is the program’s highest since 2012, and the 2022 team’s MAC winning percentage (.593) is the highest since that ‘12 club went 15-7 (.681) in league action.
BGSU, the number-four seed, will open the MAC tourney against top-seeded Miami.
