WHITING — When Youngstown State issued an intentional walk to get to Valparaiso junior Jeff Edwards, the 5-foot-7 second baseman took it personally.
“I saw they were walking Spencer (Mahoney), and I look over at my dugout and everyone was smiling at me,” he said. “I got a little mad that they wanted to go after me.”
Edwards responded by rocketing a double off the 25-foot high scoreboard in left field, plating Mahoney and Chad Jacob.
The two-out hit expanded Valparaiso’s lead to five in an eventual 8-0 rout of Youngstown State in the opening round of the Horizon League Tournament at Oil City Stadium.
“I was sitting slider, but (Youngstown State pitcher Josh North) threw me a fastball,” Edwards said. “I tried to put one in play to get some runs.”
Valparaiso coach Brian Schmack and Edwards both called his sixth-inning double the hardest hit ball of his collegiate career.
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Edwards holds a .319 batting average (23-for-72) since being elevated to the No. 2 spot in the Valparaiso (22-29) order. According to Schmack, he sees more fastballs, which has led to an increase in his offensive productivity.
“When I was down in the lineup, I felt more pressure to get on base because some guys weren’t getting on,” Edwards said. “I wanted to make things happen. Batting in the No. 2 hole, I’m up there and I want to move guys around or get something started.”
The run support was more than enough for Valparaiso pitcher Dalton Lundeen, who scattered seven hits in a complete game shutout. He earned the win to improve to 5-7, while throwing 141 pitches.
“With that mound, you feel like you’re on top of the hitter,” Lundeen said. “Even though it’s a short porch to left, you feel like you can attack, so I threw a lot of fastballs early and was able to locate.”
Schmack said Lundeen could start Saturday on two days of rest, should the Crusaders advance that far in the tournament.
Early in the game, it was the Valparaiso seniors that did the damage. Spencer Mahoney launched a solo homer, Mark Johnson looped a run-scoring double and Kyle Schneider ripped an RBI single.
Mahoney’s two bases on balls elevated his career total to 137, matching a school record that had stood since 1992.
The Crusaders are without first baseman Nate Palace, who batted .329 and led the team in RBIs (39) and home runs (7) before being shut down for the season with a torn labrum. Shea Molitor, normally a third baseman, played first base for the second consecutive game.
“We’ve tried several things with Palace out,” Schmack said. “Shea is a good defender. It’s good to get his bat and his demeanor in the lineup. We asked him if he’d ever played first base and he said in high school, so we told him to get a glove.”
The Crusaders advance to the tournament’s second day, which shifts to a double-elimination format, while the Penguins finished at 16-34 with the first-round defeat.
Vickrey is a freelance writer.