VALPARAISO, Ind. (GreenBayPhoenix.com) – After having its inaugural home series pushed back, the Green Bay softball team (10-23, 1-4 HL) split a Tuesday afternoon double-header against Valparaiso (8-21, 3-4 HL), who entered play having won eight-consecutive home games— tied for the nation's eighth-longest winning streak.
The Phoenix dropped Game 1, 11-1 in five innings, before winning Game 2, 12-4, also completed in five. Green Bay will finish a three-game series against the Crusaders tomorrow afternoon at noon.
Valparaiso 11, Green Bay 1 (Game 1, F/5)
Green Bay scored the game's first run after Acacia Tupa singled home Abby Brinkmeier in the bottom half of the first, giving the Phoenix an early 1-0 lead.
After being held to just one hit through two innings, Valparaiso tallied 11 unanswered runs on eight hits over the final three frames. The Crusaders scored four runs in the third, one in the fourth and six in the fifth, with eight of those coming on home runs by Lanie Callaghan, Kaitlyn Ranieri, Jasmine Ramirez and Sierra Pico.
Valparaiso's duo of Mollie Lindeman and Ashlyn Montgomery held the Phoenix to just two hits, combining for five strikeouts and a pair of walks in the contest.
Green Bay 12, Valparaiso 4 (Game 2, F/5)
Although Valparaiso run-ruled Green Bay in Game 1, as it turns out, things played out exactly the opposite in Game 2 after the Crusaders got on the board first with a sacrifice fly in the top of the first.
From there, it was all Phoenix, who pounded out 12 hits in five innings after being held to just two hours earlier. Green Bay jumped on Valpo starting pitcher Taylor Weissenhofer right out of the gate, scoring three runs on a RBI single by Tupa and a pair of sacrifice flies by Allie Taylor and Katelyn Huemmer.
The Phoenix continued the offensive onslaught in the second, plating four more runs on four hits, including a two-RBI double by shortstop Kelli Hutchinson. The senior from Trevor, Wis., finished the day a perfect 3-for-3 with three runs batted in at the dish, falling a triple shy of the cycle. In the fourth, she blasted her third home run of the year off the Crusaders' Mollie Lindeman.
That home run came after Valparaiso had cut Green Bay's once 7-1 lead to three in the top half of the inning, 7-4. But following a pitching change, Phoenix freshman Sara Simonar escaped a key bases-loaded jam unscathed to keep Green Bay at arm's length.
The Phoenix went on to tack on five unanswered runs, including four in the fifth, capped off by a game-winning single by DP Alyssa Johnson scoring Huemmer. The win snapped Green Bay's four-game losing skid, while halting the Crusaders' nine-game home win streak.
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