April 27, 2006
The University of Notre Dame softball team (33-13) posted a 6-2 road win at Valparaiso (18-26) on a beautiful Thursday afternoon in Norwest Indiana. The Irish pick up a non-conference win and will now face a key BIG EAST Conference weekend at USF (Saturday) and Louisville (Sunday).
The Irish offense was led by sophomore Katie Laing and senior Meagan Ruthrauff. Laing ended up two for four with two RBI doubles in her first two at bats. Ruthrauff also was two for four and drove in two runs during the victory. Another highlight was delivered by junior Gessica Hufnagle, who hit her first career home run in the contest.
Heather Booth picked up the victory, her 18th of the season and allowed two runs on four hits in six innings of work.
Notre Dame jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead on an RBI double by Laing in the top of the first inning, but Valparaiso would answer with two runs of its own in the bottom of the second.
Shannon Robinson led off with a double down the leftfield line that just ticked off Ruthrauff’s glove at third base. She moved to third on a ground out to shortstop and scored on an RBI single to right-centerfield by Beth Adamski. After a pop up to get to two outs, Notre Dame’s Sarah Smith allowed a single to rightfield to sneak through her legs in rightfield and Adamski jumped on the chance to score all the way from first base and put her team ahead 2-1.
The lead would not last long, however. Stephanie Brown led off the third inning with an infield hit and moved to second on a solid single to rightfield by Sara Schoonaert. Both runners moved up 60 feet and into scoring position on a wild pitch from Valparaiso starting pitcher Chris Halstead. Linda Kohan stepped in next and hit a ground ball to third base. Valpo third base Taylor Callahan fielded the ball cleanly and threw home to get Brown attempting to score from third.
Now with runners on the corners with one out, Notre Dame inserted Beth Northway to pinch run for Kohan and Valpo turned to Andrea Zappia in relief. It was not an unusual move, as Zappia leads the team in innings pitched up has only made eight starts in 2006.
Northway stole second base to get in scoring position and she scored on an RBI single to rightfield by Ruthrauff. Ruthrauff moved to second base on the throw and she would come home and score, along with Northway on a double off the leftfield wall by Laing. The Irish had suddenly turned a one-run deficit into a two-run lead.
After Booth worked her first one-two-three inning in the bottom of the third, Notre Dame came back with another run in the fourth inning. Hufnagle led off and crushed a home run to leftfield, the first career round tripper for the Middlebury, Ind., native.
The Irish added to their lead in the top of the fifth on back-to-back hits from Kohan and Ruthrauff. Kohan drilled a 1-2 pitch up the middle for her first hit of the game and scored from first when Ruthrauff doubled deep into the right-centerfield gap for her second RBI of the game. Laing, Carissa Jaquish and Erin Glasco were retired in order to end the inning, but the Irish lead was now 6-2.
With the four-run lead, Booth made sure the lead would hold with solid pitching over the next four innings. She retired 12 of the 13 batters she faced, with a walk the only blemish during the run.