March 5, 2001
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - The Purdue softball team comes away from the second annual Islander Bash by the Bay as the champions with a 3-0-1 record, bumping its 2001 overall record to 12-2-1. The Boilermakers became the tourney champs after tying the UT-Arlington Mavericks, 0-0, and defeating the Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters, 2-1, earlier today.
"Today our pitching and defense was very solid," said Purdue head coach Carol Bruggeman."Our offense was where we really struggled, but Heidi Foster ame up big for us in that second game with two RBI. Leighann Burke itched almost as close to flawless as possible today, she was a real warrior."
Burke proved that she owns a 5-1 record to go along with her 0.65 ERA with a solid performance today, as she pitched 11.1 innings, combining for a start and a relief. In the first game of the day, Burke came in for starter Meagan Dooley and pitched 4.1 innings. She finished off the tie against UT-Arlington allowing no runs, no hits, no walks and four strikeouts, while facing 13 batters.
Against the Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters, Burke started and pitched the complete game, allowing one hit, one earned run and two walks. She struck out eight, while facing 24 batters. Her season totals improve to an impressive 50 strike outs, while allowing only 16 walks, seven runs (four earned) and 20 hits in 43.1 innings pitched and 153 batters faced.
Without the solid defense of the field and the outstanding pitching performance on the day, the Boilermakers might have not come away with the championship. At the plate, Purdue struggled, mostly with bunts, which are usually a team strong point. Unfortunately, because of their struggled bunts, the Boilermakers left five runners on base, causing the game to go to an extra inning using the international tiebreaker scoring by placing a runner on second base.
In the top of the eighth, it looked as if the Mavericks might take control and win, but Purdue found its way out with two runners on base. After striking out the first batter, but hitting the second with a pitch, Burke showed that she was not ready to give up and smoked the third strike past the third batter of the inning. The fourth batter then hit into a 4-3 ground out to end the inning.
In the bottom of the eighth, the Boilermakers continued to fight at the plate, but a popped bunt turned into a double play as the Boilermakers' runner on second took to big of a lead and was unable to get back in time. The third out came as Lynne Tortorelli it a deep fly ball that the Mavericks found a break on and caught, as the wind held the ball in the air.
The Old Gold and Black ended the game with the 0-0 tie, for only the second time in the softball program's history. The previous tie was against Butler in the inaugural season. -more- In the second game of the day, Purdue came back with a much stronger attack and produced much better at the plate, though not before giving the crowd another extra innings scare. The Boilermakers defeated the Lady Techsters, 2-1, with seven hits to Louisiana Tech's two.
In the first inning, Purdue stepped up to the plate and put Andrea Roush n base, after reaching on an error by the pitcher. She was then able to take second on a wild pitch, just before Heidi Foster as able to put the ball into play with a single to left center field for Roush to score and the RBI.
The Techsters then got their run in the third as Burke walked her first of two batters in the game, followed by a single to right field and then a double steal to place runners on second and third. Louisiana Tech wrapped the inning up when it laid down a bunt on a fielder's choice to score the runner at third, just before a runner was caught stealing at second on a throw by catcher Keely Povlitz. The Boilermakers finally scored again in the bottom of the seventh inning with three hits and that second run to end the game and the day. Holly Streed tarted the inning with a single to become the first base runner. Tortorelli then reached first on a fielder's choice that failed to pick off Streed, also.
Then, with two runners on, Roush stepped to the plate and singled up the middle to put Streed on third and Tortorelli on second. Foster brought her bat to the plate with one out and converted, with the bases loaded, to score Streed for the game winner and her second key RBI of the day.
The Boilermakers will return to action this coming weekend, March 9-11, as they travel to San Jose, Calif. for the N.I.S.T. They will take on Sacramento State, Santa Clara and Arizona State on Friday and will then be seeded into bracket play for the rest of the weekend.
Following the N.I.S.T., Purdue will play in the Capital Classic in Sacramento, Calif. on March 15-18. They will play CAL, Miami (Ohio), Western Kentucky and Eastern Illinois in pool play on the 15-16 and will then be seeded into bracket play again on March 17-18.
-P-