Purdue vs. Louisville
Friday, Feb. 17 / 1:30 p.m. ET
ACC/Big Ten Challenge / Anderson Stadium / Chapel Hill, North Carolina
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Purdue at North Carolina
Saturday, Feb. 18 / 11 a.m. ET
ACC/Big Ten Challenge / Anderson Stadium / Chapel Hill, North Carolina
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Purdue vs. Louisville
Saturday, Feb. 18 / 4 p.m. ET
ACC/Big Ten Challenge / Anderson Stadium / Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Live Stats
Purdue at North Carolina
Sunday, Feb. 19 / 12:30 p.m. ET
ACC/Big Ten Challenge / Anderson Stadium / Chapel Hill, North Carolina
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Tournament Central / Tournament Preview
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Maya Hughes adjusted her head and her feet, and the vicissitudes have paid off.
The Purdue softball junior center fielder batted a robust .500 (9-for-18) last weekend in the season-opening Kajikawa Classic in Tempe, Arizona. The leadoff batter had three, three-hit games, equaling her career high accomplished four times prior to this season. Hughes ranks tied for third in the Big Ten in hits and tied for eighth in batting average.
"We have been doing a lot of mental training, and I have really taken to meditation, which has helped me keep calm at the plate and in general when I am playing," Hughes said. "I also have taken on the mentality that if I get things started, the rest of the team will keep it going."
Hughes and the Boilermakers (1-4) play in the second-annual ACC/Big Ten Challenge this weekend in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. They will face Louisville (4-1) at 1:30 p.m. ET tomorrow and 4 p.m. Saturday and the host Tar Heels (3-3) at 11 a.m. Saturday and 12:30 p.m. Sunday. Ohio State rounds out the tournament foursome.
As a freshman, Hughes started all 56 games, batting .256. But those numbers declined her sophomore year to 27 starts (among 45 games played) and a .216 average. In fact, she totaled just 16 hits all of last season.
"After last fall, I really reevaluated my footwork," Hughes said. "I was kind of struggling, and I figured out what I was doing wrong when I was slapping. I fixed it over winter break and have been running with it ever since."
Once she gets on base, Hughes is a bona fide base-stealing menace. She was a perfect 15-for-15 in 2016 and for her career has been successful 86 percent of the time (38-for-44).
"In that leadoff spot, getting on base is king, and Maya is getting on base a ton," said head coach Boo De Oliveira, noting that Hughes has become a more versatile slap hitter. "With Kristen Hoppman behind her, we have a lot of options to make things happen because both of them can play the short game, both of them can hit through the holes, and both of them run really well."
KAJIKAWA CLASIC REWIND
De Oliveira was pleased with her team's mental approach throughout the opening weekend.
"I really liked our mindset, the players came out every game with the expectation to win," De Oliveira said. "They kept reminding each other to be gritty, to have fortitude and bounce back."
Remove the Stanford game from the mix (16 earned runs allowed), and the Boilermakers' pitching was solid, to the tune of a 2.15 ERA. Nifty defense aided the hurlers. Purdue played flawlessly in the field in two games and committed just one error in another.
"Overall, the pitchers did a good job," De Oliveira said. "We're still working to get ahead of batters, but we pitched out of some tough situations, had several 1-2-3 innings, and I liked how they were executing pitches and changing speeds effectively.
"I thought we played really solid defense, especially considering we had not played on dirt since November."
ACC/BIG TEN CHALLENGE
This weekend is the second straight homecoming for De Oliveira, who was an assistant coach at North Carolina from 2011 to 2013.
"Coach (Donna) Papa is one of my biggest mentors, and I'm looking forward to going back to Chapel Hill," De Oliveira said. "We are excited to play some high-caliber teams and make the Big Ten proud."
The ACC/Big Ten Challenge is taking place at four locations. Florida State is hosting Pittsburgh, Nebraska and Northwestern; Georgia Tech is hosting Virginia Tech, Iowa and Penn State; and N.C. State is hosting Notre Dame, Michigan and Minnesota.
Purdue went 3-1 in the inaugural challenge last season in Atlanta, defeating Georgia Tech twice (3-0 and 4-3) and splitting with Syracuse (won 4-3 and lost 11-3).
Freshman Brooke Perry is from Clemmons, North Carolina, located 90 miles west of Chapel, Hill.
SERIES RECORDS
Purdue vs. Louisville: Louisville leads 5-2
Purdue vs. North Carolina: North Carolina leads 4-1
