A day after DePaul softball allowed Loyola-Chicago to capture its first road victory of the season, they took down the Valparaiso Beacons in the most uncharacteristic of ways.

The game was tied at two after seven innings, requiring extra innings for the second time on the homestand. 

Down 3-2 in the bottom of the 8th inning, after Valparaiso scored a run in the top half of the 8th inning, DePaul senior Baylee Cosgrove came up with runners on first and second base with two outs. It was the Blue Demons last chance to extend the game or to end it. 

Cosgrove hit what appeared to be a routine ground ball to Beacons second baseman Brooklynn Couch that should have ended the game. However, Couch made an error causing the ball to go right between her legs and roll into deep right center field. 

Junior Bibianna Rodriguez was the runner on second base, running for freshman Addy Burdick who drew a walk. Sophomore Morgan Rogers was on first base after getting a base hit to right field. Both of whom scored easily once the ball got past Couch to walk-off the Beacons with a 4-3 victory. 

“Oh no,” was what Cosgrove said was going through her mind initially when the ball was hit. “Especially with two outs, but once you still have it go through, I just know I had to make the next base and hope Morgan scored.” 

It’s not everyday you see a team win a game on a defensive error, but DePaul was looking for anything to cling onto after dropping the first four games of the homestand. 

“It didn’t go the way that we might have wanted it to with a hit,” Cosgrove said. “But it all worked out.”

In the extra frame, both teams were dealing with limited benches after all of the changes to try and pull in front. The game caused both teams to use a combined 32 players.

The bottom of the 8th inning rally was set up by Burdick’s two out walk to extend the game. 

“I saw we still had her (available), and I trusted her,” DePaul head coach Liz Bouck-Jagielski said. “That’s what we were talking about, fighting till the last pitch.” 

Bouck-Jagielski said that the way they fought till the very last pitch was the difference between the win and the previous losses. 

“(In previous games) We kind of gave up towards the end and thought the game was gone,” Bouck-Jagielski said. “Today they fought, they were gritty.”

Bouck-Jagielski said that the team needed to either be the hunter or the hunted in competitive games like these.

“We said we have to be wolves, and we have to go take it,” Bouck-Jagielski said. “You’re either a wolf or you’re a sheep. Today, we were wolves, and we took the game.” 

DePaul junior Bella Nigey got the start in the circle, her tenth of the season and fifteenth appearance overall. 

Nigey went six innings, allowing two runs on three hits, while striking out one and walking one. 

Nigey has been dealing with some soreness recently, but Bouck-Jagielski is looking to get every pitch she can out of Nigey as she works through the ailment. Nigey leads the team in ERA at 1.96, with the next closest being freshman Hannah Messer with a 5.91 ERA. 

“She’s been giving us as many innings as she can,” Bouck-Jagielski said. “I told her, ‘You just tell me how many innings (Nigey can go)’ I’ll pull you out if I don’t like the production. She tells me where her pain is, and I let her go as far as she can go.” 

The win versus Valparaiso brings the Blue Demons overall record to 13-17, as they head for their off-weekend. 

“I do like them to have a little bit of time off to have some family time, but we are going to practice as well,” Bouck-Jagielski said. “(We’ll have) an intersquad scrimmage, which is super competitive. We’ll do challenges throughout the practice too, then they’ll have the weekend off and we’ll get ready to play in the conference.”

The Blue Demons hit the road for a seven game, three city road trip. It starts on April 4 in Queens, NY against St. John’s for three games, then a non-conference matchup versus Notre Dame, followed by a three game set with Villanova. They’ll return home on April 15 to take on University of Illinois-Chicago.

Related stories:

• Despite seven home runs, DePaul gets swept by Providence 
• ‘Coach Liz’ is ready to help DePaul softball win
• Basketball head coach Doug Bruno steps down 

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