Feb. 9, 2001
AUBURN, Ala. - The Purdue softball team opened its season today with a 1-0 win over conference rival Ohio State and a 7-2 loss to Auburn. The Boilermakers are 1-1, the Buckeyes fall to 1-1 and Auburn improves to 3-0.
"Today's first game was an exceptional first game of the year for us," said Purdue head coach Carol Bruggeman. "Leighann (Burke) was especially sharp on the mound as were our bats. The team put forth a great effort."
In the first game of the day for Purdue, the Boilermakers prevailed as they came out strong right from the top of the first inning. In the second place spot, sophomore Andrea Roush reached on an error by the Ohio State shortstop. Following Roush, junior Katie Crabtree reached first on a fielder's choice.
Then in the second inning, sophomore Angi Roembke also reached on an error by the OSU shortstop, putting her in position to score what would be the Boilermaker's only run of the game. Senior Keely Povlitz added a single to give her team a 1-0 advantage with the RBI, scoring Roembke. Povlitz also added her first stolen base of the year.
With the wind blowing out of the park and the sun to her back, Crabtree came up to bat in the third inning and bounced her hit off the right-center field wall for a double. Crabtree gave the Buckeyes another scare when she hit a fly ball deep into straightaway centerfield in the fifth inning. But Ohio State snatched it out of the sky with a great catch to keep the score locked at 1-0, Purdue.
It was the defense in the field that pulled the game out for Purdue, as the Old Gold and Black finished up their game at the plate with three up, three down in both the sixth and seventh innings.
Sophomore Leigh Burke's no-hitter came to an end in the bottom of the sixth, as Ohio State's Roth was able to beat out the cross-field throw to first for a base hit. However, three hits and no runs would be all that the Buckeyes would tally as they ended their day while leaving four batters on base in the last two innings.
Burke ended the day with her first win of the season to stand at 1-0. She tallied three hits, four walks, five strikeouts and no runs while facing 22 batters.
"The score of that second game really does not tell the story of the whole game," said Bruggeman. "If we had been able to convert on the RBI chances that we had, we would have won the game. We had the runners in place, but we just didn't get them home. We'll just have to work on scoring the runs that we put on the bases."
The Boilermakers left nine runners on base while totaling nine hits from senior Lynne Tortorelli (3-3), Roush (2-3), Roembke (1-3) and Crabtree (3-4). Junior Nicole Crouse pitched for her first loss of the season and tallied nine hits, seven walks, four strikeouts and seven runs while facing 27 batters.
Purdue started its game off on the right foot, putting all three of its first batters on base with singles, but after the first inning, the Tiger defense played well while the Boilermakers started their streak of leaving runners on base.
However, late in the seventh inning, it looked as if the Old Gold and Black would make a comeback as Tortorelli was walked and then advanced to third on a double by Roush. But, the combination of the Tiger pitching and field defense was too much for Purdue as the Boilermakers dropped their first game of the season, 7-2.
The Boilermakers will return to action as they take on Northern Illinois tomorrow at 10 a.m. and Syracuse at 5 p.m. The Huskies fell to both Syracuse and Ohio State today to go to 0-2 while the Orangewomen were 1-0 going into their game against Auburn, following Purdue's final game.