April 7, 2000
"This was an exciting win for our team," Purdue head coach Carol Bruggeman said. "We used three different pitchers, got key hits from all parts of the lineup and did a great job of coming back after the long delay. It was a great team effort."
In the decisive Purdue seventh, freshman Andrea Roush drew a one-out walk and scored from first on Katie Crabtree's double to the wall in right field. Crabtree's RBI double added to her team-leading totals in both categories. The sophomore shortstop now has 11 doubles and 23 RBI on the season.
After freshman Heidi Foster flew out to center field for the second out of the inning, classmate Jessica Jones drove Crabtree home on a single up the middle for what proved to be the game-winning run.
Leighann Burke, a freshman, picked up the win in relief of sophomore Meagan Dooley to run her record to 7-7. Sophomore Nicole Crouse registered her first save of the campaign by striking out Buckeye Jennifer Roth with the tying run on second base for the final out.
Prior to the weather delay, Purdue struck first with two runs in the third inning. Keely Povlitz walked and advanced to second on Skeeter Nixon's single. Povlitz came around to score on a single by Roush. After Crabtree walked to load the bases, Foster plated Nixon with a sacrifice fly to deep right for the Boilers' second run.
The Buckeyes answered with two unearned runs in the home half of the third and held a 4-3 advantage when play was suspended in the sixth inning.
Crabtree, Jones and Roush each collected two hits in the game for Purdue, which improves its record to 23-19 (2-3 Big Ten) with the victory. Ohio State falls to 16-14 (0-1 Big Ten).
The Boilers return to the diamond for the first of a two-game set with Penn State Saturday at 6:00 p.m. in State College, Pa. Purdue wraps up the series against the Nittany Lions at 12 noon on Sunday.