UIC, Butler, Valpo Survive; Loyola Sent Home on Day Two of Softball Championship

2011 Horizon League Softball Championship Bracket (as of May 12)

CHICAGO -- UIC continued to slug its way through the Horizon League Softball Championship, while another strong pitching effort kept Butler in the winner's bracket.  Valparaiso sent the tournament's No. 1 seed home with a 4-0 win in the afternoon's elimination game.

Game 4: No. 5 UIC 6, No. 1 Loyola 2 (8 inn.)
The fifth-seeded Flames capitalized on a two-out error in the top of the eighth inning, plating four runs en route to a 6-2 victory over No. 1 Loyola in the first game on day two of the Horizon League Softball Championship.  Natalie Hernandez continued her torrid hitting with 4 RBI for the Flames.

UIC (23-21) loaded the bases with two outs when Carly DeMarco reached on a fielding error following a Keali Engelkens (9-5) pitch.  After a conference at the mound, Carly Schmit waited on a changeup, driving the ball to right field and scoring Christie Seddon with the eventual game-winning run.  Hernandez followed up by lining a double to the left-center field gap, clearing the bases.

Devin Miller (15-5) picked up her second win in as many days for the Flames, holding Loyola (26-25) scoreless over the last six innings, striking out 10.

It was the Ramblers who dented the scoreboard first, as Jacqueline Grim singled to left and crossed the plate on Lauren Moore's home run to center field.  UIC responded in its half of the third inning, as Hernandez and Jenna Marsalli each walked with the bases loaded, tying the game, where it would remain until the top of the eighth.

With seven RBI in two tournament games, Hernandez is three shy of the League Championship record with at least two games remaining.  Loyola's Nora Schober set the mark in the 2006 tournament.

Game 5: No. 3 Butler 3, No. 2 Valparaiso 1
Jenny Esparza continued her strong effort in the pitching circle for Butler (30-22), striking out 13 batters as the No. 3 Bulldogs knocked off second-seeded Valparaiso, 2-1, on Thursday afternoon.

In 14 innings of work in the Horizon League Softball Championship, Esparza (16-8) has 27 strikeouts while allowing a single run.  The Horizon League Pitcher of the Year held on late, as Valparaiso (32-20-1) loaded the bases in the final frame, only to come up empty.  After an infield single by Jill Jacobson put the tying run on first, Esparza struck out Angie Doerffler for the second out.  Another infield single, this one by Sara Strickland, put Crusaders at each base, but Esparza got KC Boldt swinging to end the game.

Butler threatened in each of the first three innings, loading the bases in the first and second, but Valpo starter Alex Lagesse (12-12) worked her way out of trouble, stranding eight Bulldogs over those frames.  However, Butler would strike in the fourth when Meaghan Sullivan's grounder to short stayed under the glove of Strickland, going all the way to the fence and plating Erin Jackson for the game's first run.

The Bulldogs would put a crooked number on the board in fifth, as Jessica Huey led off the inning by slapping a single to left and eventually coming around to score on Esparza's sacrifice fly to center.  Kayla Gray would follow with a single and cross home after Mallory Winters drove a double to right-center field.

Valpo would get on the board in the bottom half of the fifth, with Strickland driving in pinch runner Amanda Korb with a single to left; however, Lauren McNulty would cut down Jacobson at the plate, preventing Valparaiso from doing further damage in the frame.

Game 6: No. 2 Valparaiso 4, No. 1 Loyola 0
Sam McGee, who threw 2.1 scoreless innings in Valparaiso's (33-20-1) earlier game, tossed 6.1 scoreless in leading the Crusaders past top-seeded Loyola, 4-1, in the day's elimination game.

McGee (17-6) allowed just three hits while recording 8 strikeouts.  She received all the support she would need in the third, when Valparaiso struck for three runs against Loyola (26-26) starter Brittany Gardner (14-14).  With the bases loaded, KC Boldt drove in Amanda Wisniewski with a Texas leaguer to center.  Sadie Conner would follow a batter later with the back-breaking hit, lining a single to left-center, elluding the diving Carly Benford in center to drive in two.

Alex Lagesse would close the Crusaders scoring in the sixth, driving a single to left center to plate Amanda Korb.

McGee would cruise over the last five innings, scattering just three hits after Olivia Bell's double to lead off the second.  Bell would be cut down at the plate on an attempted squeeze two batters later in Loyola's attempt at cracking the scoreboard first.  Jenna Grim brought in the Ramblers first run with a fielders choice in the final frame.

Friday will see UIC and Butler meet in the winner's bracket at 1:30 p.m. CT, with the victor advancing to Saturday's League Championship game.  Cleveland State takes on Valparaiso at 11 a.m. on Friday, with the winner playing the loser of the UIC-Butler clash at 4 p.m. that afternoon.