HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. – Northern Kentucky softball returns to Grein Softball Field to open up the Horizon League slate, taking on the reigning League Tournament champion Valparaiso on Friday-Saturday, March 24-25. The Norse will host the Crusaders for a single game on Friday at 3 p.m. ET before a Saturday doubleheader with first pitch at noon.
LAST TIME OUT: NKU lifted the lid on the 2017 home season with a doubleheader against the reigning Mid-American Conference champion RedHawks of Miami (Ohio). The RedHawks claimed both games, starting off with a 6-1 win before a five-inning 8-0 second game. Freshmen
Isabell Alexander and
Ava Lawson were the only Norse to record a hit in both games, batting .500 and .400, respectively. Lawson drove in NKU's lone run of the day with a single through the left side in the sixth inning to send
Paige McQueen across the plate.
DOUBLE TROUBLE: NKU has ramped up its production when it comes to doubles compared to where the team was just a season ago. Twenty-two games into 2016, NKU had recorded 25 doubles on the season. This year, the Norse have posted 31 doubles to rank 57th in the nation and top the Horizon League with 1.41 doubles per game. Senior catcher
Dani Devlin leads the charge with .38 doubles per game, a number that not only leads the League but ranks 25th among all Division I players.
SCOUTING VALPARAISO: The Crusaders made an improbable run at the 2017 Horizon League Tournament, squeaking in as the No. 6 seed before rolling through the tournament field to earn the League's berth into the NCAA Tournament. This year, Valpo sits at 12-7 entering the weekend, most recently dropping an eight-inning affair to Loyola Chicago. All-League Second Team honoree Carly Trepanier has been leading the team at the plate during her sophomore season, batting .433 with a team-best 29 hits. Valpo is also seeing a strong start to Sam Stewart's senior season, as the 2017 HL Tournament MVP is batting .412 and slugging a League-best .902 while also leading the team and the League in home runs (7) and RBI per game (1.32), the latter of which ranks 10th nationally. In the circle, reigning HL Pitcher of the Week Mackenzie Grossman paces the Horizon League with 7.0 strikeouts per seven innings, also holding teams to a .239 average at the plate throughout her 52.0 innings pitched. Ashlyn Montgomery has also earned a nod from the League as the Pitcher of the Week on March 13, and she holds the lowest ERA on the team at 2.55 throughout 55.0 innings pitched.
As a team, Valpo is batting .273 and slugging .413 and sits within the League's top-four in all major statistical categories. The Crusaders lead the Horizon League in slugging percentage, scoring (4.21 runs per game), home runs per game (.74), fielding percentage (.974) and double plays per game (.58), sitting at No. 8 nationally in the double plays statistic.
Valparaiso holds a 2-1 advantage in the all-time series with the Norse, with NKU's only win coming in the 1991 season. Last year, the first game of the series was cancelled due to inclement weather, but the Crusaders went on to take both games of a doubleheader, 2-0 and 8-0.
