May 12, 2012

Box Score

VALPARAISO, Ind. - Angie Doerffler's single to the gap in left center with two outs in the bottom of the ninth gave host and No. 1 seed Valparaiso (41-17) a 2-1 victory over No. 2 seed Loyola University Chicago (26-22) at the Horizon League Championship this afternoon. The same two teams will play a winner-take-all contest this afternoon with the winner earning the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Loyola took the lead in the top of the third inning when Brooke Andresen laced a double off the fence in left center to score Olivia Bell, who had led off the inning with an infield hit.

The Crusaders had a major scoring opportunity thwarted in the bottom half of the third when Sara Strickland was called out for leaving first base early on what would have been a single down the right field line by Angie Doerffler. Instead, Loyola starter Brittany Gardner escaped the inning unscathed.

The game would stay that way until the sixth inning when Doerffler led off the frame with a solo home run down the left field line to knot the score at 1-1.

Andresen came up with the game's biggest defensive play in the eighth inning when she gunned down pinch runner Amanda Korb at the plate for the second out in the inning.

In the bottom of the ninth, back-to-back singles by Lindsey Norway and Amanda Wisniewski gave the Crusaders a runner in scoring position and after Strickland flied out to left, Doerffler delivered the game-winning hit to left center.

Gardner scattered eight hits and struck out five in 8.2 innings in the hard-luck defeat. Along the way, she eclipsed Lindsey LaChiana's previous single-season school record (204) by totaling her 205th punchout of the year.

The winner of today's second game between Loyola and Valparaiso will earn a berth in next weekend's NCAA Tournament.