Valparaiso (16-16, 4-7 MVC)
April 11 - vs. Fort Wayne (14-23, 0-3 Summit) - 3:30 p.m. - Valpo Softball Complex
April 14 (DH) and 15 - at Drake (28-9, 11-0 MVC) - Des Moines, Iowa

Next Up in Crusader Softball: The Valparaiso University softball team takes a brief step out of conference play as it hosts Fort Wayne on Wednesday afternoon before traveling to take on MVC-leading Drake in Des Moines this weekend.

Previously: The Crusaders welcomed UNI to the Valpo Softball Complex last weekend for a three-game MVC series. Valpo came out on top in the series opener, 2-0, behind a strong effort in the circle from Kenzie Grossmann, but the Panthers came back to take both halves of a Sunday doubleheader, 5-0 and 7-3. Morgan Matalin led the Crusaders in the series, going 5-for-8 at the plate.

Following the Crusaders: Live stats for all four games this week will be available via ValpoAthletics.com. The Fort Wayne game will have an audio broadcast online as well. The Drake series will be Valpo’s first series broadcast over ESPN+, ESPN’s new DTC subscription streaming service available as part of the new ESPN app beginning on Thursday.

Head Coach Kate Stake: Kate Stake was hired as head coach of the Valparaiso softball program on July 23, 2014 and is in her fourth season as head coach, owning 78 victories. Stake led the Crusaders to the 2016 Horizon League Championship and a berth in the NCAA Tournament - the third in program history. Stake arrived at Valpo with eight seasons of assistant coaching experience at the Division I level, most recently serving as an assistant at mid-major power Hofstra.

Series Notes: Fort Wayne - Valpo holds a 23-14 advantage in the all-time series over the Mastodons, including a 6-0 victory in the most recent matchup on April 26, 2016 in Fort Wayne. Taylor Weissenhofer carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning of that contest before surrendering a leadoff double.

Drake - Valpo is 1-5 all-time versus the Bulldogs, but only two of those meetings have come in the last 25 years. The Crusaders beat Drake at UNI early in the 2012 season, 5-3, while the Bulldogs earned an 8-0 victory over Valpo at Colorado State in March of 2015.

Scouting the Opposition: Fort Wayne - The Mastodons enter Wednesday’s contest at 14-23 this year, dropping three games last weekend to Western Illinois in their league-opening series. Lacey Wilzbacher leads the FW offense, hitting at a .314 clip, while in the circle, Bailey Benefiel has pitched just shy of half of the team’s innings and owns a 9-7 record with a 3.10 ERA.

Drake - The Bulldogs have run the table so far in MVC play, entering this weekend with a perfect 11-0 mark in the conference. Nicole Newman has been strong in the circle for Drake, carrying a 12-2 record with a 0.59 ERA and 144 strikeouts in 83.1 innings of work. Three Bulldog regulars hit better than .330 at the plate, led by Macy Johnson, who is hitting .360, gets on base at a .457 clip and has stolen 15 bases this season.

Crusaders Picked Ninth in Preseason Poll: Valpo was tabbed ninth in the 2018 Missouri Valley Conference preseason poll, picked to finish ahead of Indiana State in the preseason polling of the conference’s head coaches. Four different programs received at least two first place votes in the polling, with Illinois State edging out Southern Illinois and UNI for the top spot in the poll.

A New Journey: The Crusader softball program embarks on a new journey in 2018 as Valpo competes in the Missouri Valley Conference for the first time. The conference move presents a challenging slate for the Crusaders, as each of the other nine MVC programs finished last season with an RPI ranking of 181 or better, whereas Valpo’s league opposition last season featured just one program with an RPI ranking better than 181.

Plenty of Experience Back: Valpo has welcomed back an experienced group for its first season of play in The Valley in 2018. 16 letterwinners return from last year’s squad, including seven starters on offense and a trio of pitchers who combined to throw nearly 88% of the team’s innings last season.

Matalin Keeps On Raking: Sophomore Morgan Matalin has been the Crusaders’ top hitter at the plate in MVC play, and kept it going last weekend in the UNI series. The sophomore went 5-for-8 over the three games, including a 2-for-2 effort in the Crusader win in the series opener, where she scored a key insurance run as well. Then, in the series finale, Matalin was moved to the 2-spot in the batting order for the first time in her career and responded with her second career three-hit game. Matalin leads the Crusaders in Valley play with a .440 batting average and is slugging at an .800 clip.

Shutting Down the Panthers: Senior Kenzie Grossmann put together one of the top efforts of her career in the series opener against UNI. Grossmann tossed a three-hit shutout in the Crusaders’ 2-0 victory - just the second time this season the Panthers had been held scoreless. The win was her 10th of the season and 30th of her Crusader career, already good for a tie for seventh in program history despite it being just her second season at Valpo. With a 1.72 ERA on the season, Grossmann is on pace for the best ERA by a Crusader pitcher since 1990.

Ramirez Matches a Record: Senior first baseman Jasmine Ramirez was on the back end of each of the 17 groundball outs that Grossmann induced in the series-opening win over UNI, and then completed a putout on a dropped third strike to close out the victory for her 18th putout of the game. The 18 putouts tied Ramirez’s own program single-game record for putouts, which she set last season on April 12 against UIC - a game in which she needed nine innings to register 18 putouts. With 629 career putouts, Ramirez currently ranks eighth in program history and is just 24 shy of sixth position, while her .991 fielding percentage is second-best all-time at Valpo.

Anderson Gets Going: The transition to collegiate softball can be tough for any freshman, much less a freshman who spends the fall playing volleyball, as Crusader rookie Brittany Anderson does. After a slow start to the softball campaign, Anderson has been rounding into form recently at the plate for Valpo. Over the Crusaders’ last seven games, Anderson is 6-for-18 at the plate with three RBIs and has gotten on base at a .429 clip in that stretch. She has tallied at least one base hit in five of her six starts in that span as well.