Valparaiso (8-36, 2-17 MVC)
April 30 - at UIC (17-32, 10-13 MVC) - 5 p.m.
May 3 - UNI (28-15, 16-5 MVC) - 3 p.m.
May 4 - UNI - 2 p.m.
May 5 - UNI - noon
Next Up in Valpo Softball: The regular season closes out this week for Valpo softball with a quartet of games. The Beacons will complete their series against UIC with a Tuesday evening game in Chicago before returning home to the Valpo Softball Complex for a three-game weekend series versus UNI. Saturday's game will serve as the program's Senior Day, with the Beacons' five seniors being honored prior to the game.
Previously: Valpo dropped a midweek doubleheader to Northern Illinois last week and came out on the wrong end of a pair of MVC games against Murray State on Saturday. The series finale against the Racers was canceled and will not be made up.
Looking Ahead: The 2024 MVC Tournament kicks off from Normal, Ill. next Wednesday, May 8.
Following Valpo Softball: All four games this week are scheduled to be broadcast live on ESPN+. All games will also have live stats available, linked at ValpoAthletics.com.
Interim Head Coach Laney Jones: In her second season on staff, Laney Jones took over as interim head coach of the Valpo softball program on April 1, 2024. Jones came to Valpo in October 2022 after spending the 2022 season working as a graduate assistant at Notre Dame College in South Euclid, Ohio. Jones pitched two seasons apiece collegiately at Ashland University (2018-19) and Marshall University (2020-21).
Series Notes: UIC - Valpo renews acquaintances with the most common opponent in program history this week, as the two programs meet for the 92nd time. UIC holds a 69-22 advantage in the all-time series and clinched this year's season series by virtue of 2-1 and 4-1 wins at Valpo earlier this month. The first game needed nine innings to be decided, as Sydney McDermott carried a shutout through regulation before surrendering a single run apiece in the eighth and ninth frames. In the 4-1 game, Caitlyn Kowalski and Anna Wilming combined to surrender just one earned run.
UNI - Valpo is just 1-20 all-time against the Panthers, including a 1-14 mark since joining the Valley. Last season, UNI swept the three-game series in Cedar Falls by scores of 7-2, 3-0 and 9-0.
Scouting the Opposition: UIC - The Flames enter Tuesday's game with a 17-32 overall record and a 10-13 mark in MVC play after dropping two of three last weekend at home to Drake. Alannah Cran owns the team's best batting average among regulars at .297, while Grace Fleming has scored a team-best 20 runs and Carlee Jo Clarks leads the Flames with 23 RBIs. Four hurlers have split the workload in the circle, with Christina Toniolo throwing a team-high 128.1 innings with a 4.56 ERA.
UNI - Winners of nine in a row, the Panthers come into the final weekend of the regular season second in the Valley standings at 16-5 and with an overall record of 28-15. Alexis Pupillo paces UNI across the board in offensive categories, entering the week with a .350 batting average, 16 homers, 49 RBIs and 35 runs scored. Samantha Heyer and Anna Wischnowski have split most of the innings in the circle - Heyer is 15-6 with a 2.01 ERA and 172 strikeouts in 128.2 innings, while Wischnowski is 12-6 with a 3.59 ERA and 79 strikeouts in 105.1 innings.
Who's Back: Valpo returns 11 of 16 letterwinners from last year's squad for the 2024 season. In all, 69.2% of Valpo's plate appearances are back for this season and 43.1% of last season's innings pitched return.
Who's New: A group of nine newcomers joined the Beacons for the 2024 season. Kam Utendorf transferred in after playing her freshman season at Black Hawk College, joining eight true freshmen on this year's team.
A Large Roster: The combination of 11 returnees and nine newcomers gives Valpo a 20-player roster for the 2024 campaign. That's a four-player increase over last season's group of 16 players, and it is the largest roster the softball program has had since fielding 21 players for the 2008 season.
Celebrating the Seniors: Valpo will honor the five members of the 2024 senior class prior to Saturday's middle game of the series against UNI - Emily Crompton, Regi Hecker, Alexis Johnson, Caitlyn Kowalski and Kayla Skapyak. The four position players - Crompton, Hecker, Johnson and Skapyak - are all enjoying the best offensive season of their respective careers this year as seniors. Meanwhile, Kowalski owns 106 career pitching appearances, sixth-most in program history and just one shy of the top-five, and is just 13 strikeouts away from the program's all-time top-10 in that category.
An Eye on the Tournament: With just one week remaining in the regular season, Valpo is not quite locked in to its tournament seed yet. The Beacons can still move up to the 11 seed should they win all four games this week and Indiana State drop all three of theirs. Should Valpo be the 12 seed for the tournament, it would open tournament play against the fifth seed at 1 p.m. next Wednesday, May 8.
Bush Busts Open: It seems like something was unlocked in the bat of freshman Natalie Bush when she hit her first career home run in the series finale at Missouri State April 21. Over last week's four games, Bush went 6-for-11 at the plate and OPSed 1.674 for the week. She went 3-for-5 with a double and a walk in a nonconference doubleheader against Northern Illinois, and followed by going 3-for-6 with a run scored and two RBIs in an MVC twinbill against Murray State. Bush delivered two doubles in the opener against the Racers and then connected on a two-run homer in the nightcap off of Murray State ace Jenna Veber, who had surrendered just four home runs in 167 innings this season entering the game. Prior to the at-bat where she hit the home run at Missouri State, Bush had been just 4-for-40 at the plate this year.
Some More Firsts: For the second straight week, last week had a midweek nonconference twinbill which featured a few firsts. Taking on Northern Illinois last Wednesday, freshman Madison Stamper started the opener at catcher and registered the first caught stealing of her collegiate career. Then, in the nightcap, freshman Lana Tellez started at catcher for the first time in her collegiate career and reached base for the first two times, drawing her first walk in her first plate appearance and tallying a single for her first hit her second time up.
Hitting in Conference: With one week of Valley play remaining, three of Valpo's seniors are hitting at or above the .300 mark in MVC play. Regi Hecker leads the way with a .316 batting average against conference opponents and is OPSing at an .865 clip. Emily Crompton and Kayla Skapyak have identical lines of 12-for-40 at the plate in MVC play, good for a .300 batting average.
Bombs in Back-to-Back Games: Senior Regi Hecker hit one homer apiece in the final two games of the series at Missouri State, the fourth and fifth long balls of her career. She became the first Valpo player to go yard in consecutive games since April 2022, when Lauren Kehlenbrink hit home runs in all three games of a Valley series against Bradley.
Wrong End of the Walk-offs: For the third time in MVC play this year, the Beacons found themselves on the wrong side of a walk-off victory, as Missouri State got an RBI double in the bottom of the seventh on April 21 for a 5-4 win. Notably, all three walk-off losses have come on Sundays, in the final game of each of Valpo's three Valley road series.
Seven Shutout Frames: Freshman Sydney McDermott got the start in the circle in the series opener against UIC April 9 and twirled a gem through seven innings, keeping the Flames off the board in regulation before they touched her for a run apiece in the eighth and ninth innings. It was the second time in conference play that McDermott has pitched at least seven shutout innings, as against Bradley, she opened the game allowing just two hits in nine shutout innings before surrendering three runs in the 10th. In that contest, McDermott became the first player in program history to pitch nine straight shutout innings within the same game.
Among the MVC's Best: Entering this week's action, senior Alexis Johnson ranks third in the Valley with 14 stolen bases, while McDermott ranks 10th with 108.2 IP. While Johnson committed her first error within conference play last weekend against Murray State, her 37 assists are the most among any of the top-40 in MVC-only play in fielding percentage.
Offensive Bests: This year's team put together a number of strong offensive performances in preconference play:
- 13 runs Feb. 16 in win over Morehead State, the program's largest scoring output since March 2019
- 13 hits Feb. 18 in win over Youngstown State, the program's highest single-game hits total since Feb. 2022
- 6 runs March 2 at Indiana, the program's largest scoring output against a Power Five team since March 2012
- 12-4 run-rule win over Bowling Green March 3, the program's first run-rule win since closing the 2022 regular season with a 10-0 win over Evansville
International Experience: Sophomore infielder Kim Rodas continued her international career playing for Mexico over the summer, as she earned a bronze medal at the 2023 Central American and Caribbean Games. Rodas previously medaled with Team Mexico at the 2021 Junior Pan American Games, where her squad claimed the silver.
