Lagesse's Perfect Game Highlights League-Opening Weekend

VALPARAISO, Ind. -- Junior Alex Lagesse (Beecher, Ill./Beecher) threw a perfect game, retiring all 15 batters she faced, in the Horizon League opener Saturday against Detroit as Valparaiso won 8-0 in five innings.  The Crusaders then captured the nightcap in five innings as well by a 10-0 score for their tenth straight victory, a new program record for longest winning streak.

Lagesse registered eight of her 15 outs in the perfect game via strikeout and had no hitter even hit the ball into the outfield after the first inning.  Her 65-pitch gem was her second career no-hitter, as Lagesse also no-hit Bryant as a freshman on March 9, 2009. It also marks just the Crusaders' third no-hitter in the last nine years, and is the first no-no at the Valparaiso University Softball Field since Stephanie Kelly and Carrie Franson combined for a five-inning no-hitter against IPFW on April 16, 2007.

“Alex got better as the game went on today, which was nice to see,” said Crusader head coachJordan Stevens.  “I don't think she was as sharp as she wanted to be in the first inning, but she progressively got better.  By the time she got rolling, she was throwing the ball very, very well.  Obviously, a perfect game is pretty special, and it was good to see her pitch so well to earn it today.”

It looked for most of the game that Lagesse would have to carry the perfect game deeper than just five innings, as Valpo put just two runs on the board in the first four innings.  Freshman Angie Doerffler (Fort Wayne, Ind./Concordia Lutheran) reached on a fielder's choice in the first and eventually scored on an RBI single back up the middle by junior Jordan Rutkowski (Alden, N.Y./Alden).  Then in the fourth, senior Sadie Conner (Washington, Ill./Washington) and juniorKelsey Phalen (Batavia, Ill./Batavia) registered back-to-back two-out doubles, plating the former with the game's second run.

The score was still 2-0 starting the bottom of the fifth, where freshman Amanda Wisniewski (Lake in the Hills, Ill./Huntley) led off with a solo homer to right field.  Later in the frame, with two on and one out, senior KC Boldt (Red Wing, Minn./Red Wing) connected on a double just to the right of center field, scoring sophomore Hayley Bridwell (Lemont, Ill./Lemont).  Rutkowski followed by driving Doerffler in for the second time on the game to make it 5-0.

An infield single by Conner brought home Boldt to increase the lead to six runs and put runners on the corners for Phalen, who delivered her second double of the game to score Rutkowski.  Needing just one more run for the run-rule win, Wisniewski stepped up two batters later for the second time in the inning and knocked a single back up the middle to score Conner with the game's final run.

Lagesse improved to 5-5 with the perfect game in the opener, while Detroit's Karyn McCarty took the complete-game loss, falling to 2-3.  Five different Crusaders had multi-hit games as Valpo picked up 11 hits as a team in the opener.

(Release courtesy of ValpoAthletics.com)