Valparaiso’s 15-day,
17-game, 2,869 mile spring break road trip closed on an extremely high note
Saturday, as the Crusaders opened the day with a solid 4-1 win over Missouri
State before ending their slate at the KU Invitational in Lawrence, Kan. with a
6-5 walkoff victory over host Kansas.
“I think we had a great
ending to a great week today, and we finished it with a thrilling win over a
Big 12 school in Kansas,”
said Crusader head coach Randy Schneider. “It’s a good feeling, especially since it was
a full team effort. Everybody really
came together to win the ballgame. I was
happy to see us put up another 12 hits today; 25 hits over two games against a
major-conference team is a great accomplishment.”
The Crusaders jumped out
to a three-run lead on the Jayhawks in the nightcap, as RBI doubles by Lisa DeBruzzi (Carlisle, Mass./Concord-Carlisle)
and Sara Strickland (Phoenix,
Ariz./Horizon) in the second inning and an RBI single by Jordan Rutkowski (Alden, N.Y./Alden) in the fifth frame put Valpo
six outs away from a 3-0 victory. But Kansas, batting as the
road team in its home venue, erased the deficit with one swing of the bat in
the top of the sixth, with a three-run homer by Amanda Jobe making it a brand
new 3-3 ballgame.
Jessie Marinec (Alsip, Ill./Marist) got the Crusaders going in the
bottom of the sixth to help regain the lead, taking advantage of an error to
reach base safely leading off the frame.
Sadie Conner (Washington, Ill./Washington)
followed with a single, and after the runners both advanced on a wild pitch,
DeBruzzi again stepped up with runners in scoring position, connecting on a
single that brought both Marinec and Conner across the plate to push Valpo
ahead 5-3.
The Jayhawks responded in
their final at-bat, though, as a single and triple cut the deficit to 5-4 with
the tying run on third base and nobody out.
Shaleigh Jansen (Ottawa, Ill./Ottawa Township) entered
in the circle for the Crusaders and induced a popout on the first batter she
faced, but an RBI single by Mariah Montgomery tied the game at five
apiece. Kansas went on to have runners
on first and second with just one out in an effort to take the lead, but an
unconventional double play following an error got Valpo out of the inning.
But the Crusaders would
take full advantage of having the last chance to end the game in
regulation. Rutkowski led off the bottom
of the seventh with a single, and after Kelsey
Phalen (Batavia, Ill./Batavia)
advanced her to second with a sac bunt, Joylyn
Ichiyama (Torrance, Calif./Redondo Union) came up with a single and
advanced to second on the throw. With
runners on second and third and just one out, Kansas elected to intentionally
walk Marinec to load the bases and set up a force at any base, but Conner
negated the strategy by hitting a fly ball to the fence that went down as a
game-winning RBI single which brought home Rutkowski.
Jansen earned the win for
the Crusaders, improving to 3-3 on the year by registering the final three outs
on defense. Alex Lagesse (Beecher, Ill./Beecher) started in the circle for Valpo and shut
down Kansas
(10-11) through five innings before eventually allowing five runs in six-plus
innings while striking out six. Allie
Clark took the loss in relief for Kansas,
falling to 3-2 on the year. The
Crusaders tallied 12 hits on the game, led by four players with multiple
hits. Marinec scored two runs, while
DeBruzzi drove in a career-high three runs.
“There’s just a lot of
players who hit the ball well for us today,” said Schneider. “Obviously Sadie had a big day, not only
coming up with the game-winning hit but also laying down a couple nice
sacrifices as well. Joy came up with a
key hit for us too, and Lisa just really hit the ball well for us here in Kansas. Sara did well too, getting two hits for us in
both games.”
The opener for the
Crusaders didn’t need nearly the dramatics for Valpo to come out
victorious. They took the lead in the
top of the third as Strickland scored on an RBI triple by Rutkowski. Phalen followed with a two-bagger that plated
Rutkowski, and the sophomore first baseman eventually came around to score on
an error to give the Crusaders a 3-0 lead.
Valpo added an insurance
tally in the fourth when pinch-runner KC
Boldt (Red Wing, Minn./Red
Wing) scored on an RBI single off the bat of Strickland. That was more than enough for Sam McGee (Bloomington, Minn./Jefferson),
who improved to 6-0 on the year with 6.1 innings of work, giving up just one
run while striking out seven. Natalie
Rose took the loss for Missouri
State (2-11), falling to
0-4.
Jansen entered with one
on and one out in the seventh and picked up the final two outs for her fifth
save of the year, already tied for second-most in a single season in school
history. Phalen and Strickland both
picked up a pair of hits against the Bears.
“It was a heck of a day
today, coming out with two wins to close this portion of our schedule with 15
wins,” said Schneider. “Our goal was to
go on this trip, go on the road and have to get on and off the bus and see if
we could play well. We’ve got four big
road series in league play and need to be able to play well on the road to
finish where we want to in the league standings. So to see how we were mentally on this trip,
getting off the bus and taking the field and playing well, I think we’ll have
our shots on the road in league play.”
Valparaiso (15-6) now gets a few days off before returning
to action this coming Wednesday with the start of the 2010 home campaign at
Valparaiso University Softball Field.
The home slate will kick off with a non-league twinbill against Western Illinois at 2 p.m. CDT. Both games will be broadcast live on WVUR,
95.1 FM, Valparaiso
and online at www.valpoathletics.com,
which will also have links for live stats.