April 4, 2004
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The wind was blowing and the Michigan bats were hot helping the Wolverines to a 9-0 victory over Purdue in Game 1 of Sunday's doubleheader.
The Boilermakers tallied the game's first hit, when sophomore Tricia Lilley posted a two-out double in the bottom of the first. She moved to third on a wild pitch, but was left stranded by a strikeout.
Michigan lit up the first run on the scoreboard, with a trio of runs on three hits in top of the second. Jennifer Olds sent a lead-off double into right center field, then scored as Nicole Motycka sent a shot over the left center wall. Grace Leutele followed suit, tallying a two-out solo shot to dead center, capping the innings' scoring. A ground out ended the inning.
Purdue put another runner in scoring position in the third as senior Angela Knight recorded a two-out single to second base. Junior Katie Absher duplicated the effort, moving Knight to third, but was caught stealing a play later to wrap up the stanza.
The Wolverines tacked on four more runs in the fourth. Jessica Merchant reached on a fielding error by the shortstop, then came around as Nicole Motycka launched a shot just inside the left field foul pole. Monica Schock then walked, before scoring on a two-run round-tripper by Leutele. A ground out and fly out stopped the rally.
The Boilermakers put two aboard in the fourth on a walk and hit by pitch, but a trio of strikeouts left them stranded.
Michigan capped the scoring in the sixth with a pair of runs on back-to-back solo home runs by Merchant and Motycka. Freshman Brooke Baker then entered the game in relief and struck out two batters and forced another into a fielder's choice to get Purdue out of the inning. The Boilermakers went down 1-2-3 to seal the Wolverine run-rule victory.
Knight, Absher and Lilley each posted a hit for the Boilermakers, while Michigan scored nine runs on eight hits. Sophomore Diana LaRiva was charged with the loss striking out six in five innings of work, while Jennie Ritter picked up the win for UM after K'ing eight in five innings.
"I think Michigan proved why they are the No. 9 team in the nation," head coach Carol Bruggeman said. "Every mistake our pitchers made, they hit and with the wind blowing out, they hit it hard and had a lot of home runs. Diana was not on her game today and we didn't play our best today. We had plenty of opportunities, our hitters just did not come through.
"Ever since (Andrea) Hillsey has been out of the lineup, we have been struggling to find ways to manufacture runs and today was proof of that. We are still trying to find the right batting order to get some key hits. But, I give Michigan all of the credit in the world; they are a good hitting team and a good pitching team."
The Boilermakers (22-11) look to rebound with a victory in the night cap of the doubleheader.