Monday, March 28, 2011

Valparaiso junior pitcher Alex Lagesse (Beecher, Ill./Beecher) has been named Horizon League Pitcher of the Week after posting victories in all three of her appearances last week, highlighted by a perfect game on Saturday.

Lagesse opened the week with a solid performance at IUPUI, going six innings and giving up just one run on four hits while striking out five to earn the victory.  Then, in the opener of Horizon League play Saturday against Detroit, Lagesse was simply perfect, facing 15 batters and setting down all 15, eight via strikeout, in a five-inning run-rule victory for the Crusaders.  The perfect game was the second no-no of the junior’s career, as she no-hit Bryant as a freshman in 2009, also the last no-hitter by Valpo as a team.

Lagesse returned on Sunday and earned her third victory of the week with four innings of shutout ball against the Titans.  The junior surrendered just one hit, one walk and one hit batsman in her Sunday outing, with the hit leading off the fourth inning breaking a stretch of 9.2 innings of hitless ball Lagesse had tossed.  Overall for the week, Lagesse posted a 3-0 record and a 0.47 ERA over 15.0 innings of work, surrendering just five hits and three walks while striking out 15 batters.

The award for Lagesse is her fifth weekly honor from the Horizon League office, tied for fifth-most by a pitcher in league history.  Lagesse and the Crusaders step out of league play Wednesday afternoon for a 3 p.m. doubleheader at Northern Illinois before returning home this weekend to play two Saturday and one Sunday against UIC, both days starting at 1 p.m.