Sophomore Brittany Anderson (East Chicago, Ind./Bishop Noll) connected on her fourth home run of the season in the third inning to give the Valparaiso University softball team a 3-0 lead Sunday in its series finale at UNI, but the Panthers took the lead in the bottom of the inning and went on to an 11-3 victory.

How It Happened

• Valpo put runners on the corners with two out in the first, as freshman Peyton Moeder (Shawnee, Kan./Mill Valley) led off the game with a walk and Anderson would later single, but a strikeout kept the Crusaders off the board in the opening inning.
• Junior Jenna Edwards (Winchester, Ky./ George Rogers Clark [Chattanooga State C.C.]) returned the favor in the bottom of the first. After being summoned with two runners on and nobody out, Edwards retired the next three UNI batters in order – two via strikeout – to keep the Panthers off the board.
• UNI again put its first two hitters on base in the second, but again Edwards battled out of trouble, retiring each of the next three hitters to send the game into the third inning scoreless.
• Valpo would take the lead in the top of the third. Moeder reached on a leadoff error, but was erased on a fielder’s choice off the bat of senior Carly Trepanier (Manteno, Ill./Manteno). Senior Jaymee Lawton (Goodyear, Ariz./Desert Edge [Utah Valley]) followed with an infield single to put two runners on for Anderson, who drilled a 1-0 pitch for a no-doubt homer over the left-field wall to give Valpo the 3-0 lead.
• But UNI claimed the lead with a five-run third inning of its own, capped by a three-run homer by Emma Valainis, to go ahead 5-3.
• It was still a 5-3 game into the fifth inning, when Trepanier and Lawton led off the inning with consecutive singles. Following a UNI pitching change, the next two Valpo hitters were retired before junior Hannah Dybalski (Lebanon, Ind./Lebanon) drew a pinch-hit walk to load the bases. But a strikeout would strand all three runners and keep it a two-run deficit.
• UNI closed out the game with six runs in the bottom of the fifth.

Inside the Game

• Anderson’s home run puts her just one behind Lawton for team-high honors this year. Two of the sophomore’s four homers this season have come in the last four games.
• Trepanier’s run in the third inning was her 95th career run scored, just three outside of Valpo’s all-time top-10 in the category.
• Anderson and Lawton both had multi-hit games. For Lawton, it was her sixth multi-hit game of the season, tied with Trepanier and Taylor Herschbach for the team lead.

Next Up

Valpo (12-22, 2-14 MVC) is scheduled to play five consecutive home games over an eight-day stretch, starting with a non-conference matchup with Western Michigan at the Valpo Softball Complex on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m.