SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Facing a steep test in regular season title winners Louisville at the Big East Tournament May 11, the DePaul softball team still had a good chance to bounce the favorites, having handed the Cardinals their only two losses of the season earlier this year.
It wasn’t meant to be, however, as the Blue Demons fell to the tournament’s top seed 2-0 on Friday afternoon in the conference semifinals at Melissa Cook Stadium on the campus of the University of Notre Dame.
The Blue Demons were at least able to leave the tournament with a win after putting forth a convincing outing the day before, defeating the South Florida Bulls 6-0 in the quarterfinal round.
There is one thing that Eugene Lenti has consistently preached all season, which stuck for his players against the Bulls.”Hitting is zone.”
Verdun, meanwhile, was in command for the entire game with the exception of a few small hiccups. The unanimously voted All-Big East first-team player pitched a complete game shutout, striking out five, giving up two hits and not walking a single USF batter. The only base runner DePaul allowed in the first three innings was off of an Allie Braden error.
“She’s such a bulldog, she always has our back,” Ciezki said about the do-everything Verdun. “We know if we can get her one run, she’ll shut the other team down. We want to score as many runs as we can to take the pressure off of