May 12, 2011
Bulldogs Advance In League Tournament
CHICAGO, ILL. -- Erin Jackson sparked an 11-hit
attack and Jenny Esparza pitched another gem to lead Butler to a
3-1 victory over Valparaiso on the second day of the 2011 Horizon
League Softball Championship at the Loyola Softball Park. The
win left Butler as one of two unbeaten teams in the
double-elimination tournament.
Jackson had three hits and scored Butler’s first run against
the No. 2-seeded Crusaders. She singled with one out in the
fourth inning and then came around to score on an error by
Valparaiso shortstop Angie Doerffler. The Butler center
fielder also singled in the second inning and again in the
seventh.
Esparza blanked the Crusaders through the first four innings,
before surrendering her first run of the tournament in the fifth
frame. She faced a bases-loaded situation in the seventh
inning, but struck out clean-up hitter KC Boldt to end the
game. It was Esparza’s 13th strikeout of the contest,
and her 27th of the tournament.
Butler (30-22), the No. 3 seed in the tournament, threatened in
each of the first three innings in the contest, loading the bases
in the first and second frames and getting a runner to third base
in the third. Jackson broke the deadlock in the fourth, and
the Bulldogs added two more runs in the fifth on a sacrifice fly by
Esparza and a run-scoring double by Mallory Winters.
Esparza, the Horizon League’s Pitcher of the Year, had a
no-hitter through three innings, and she surrendered just five hits
in the game. The victory lifted her to 16-8 on the
season.
The Bulldogs will face No. 5 seed UIC, a 6-2 winner over host
Loyola, in a winner’s bracket game on Friday at 1:30 p.m.
(CT). The winner will advance to the tournament championship
round on Saturday at noon.
