Box Score: HTML / PDF // Huffman's Game-Winning Home Run
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Lexi Huffman blasted a two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth inning to give the Purdue softball a 4-3 walkoff victory and complete a three-game series sweep of Michigan State on opening weekend of Big Ten Conference play.
Huffman's homer came on a 0-1 pitch and scored Kaitlyn Moody, who had led off the inning with a double.
Moody started inside the circle for the second consecutive game of the series, throwing 7.1 innings and allowing three runs and six hits. Maddie Damon replaced Moody in the eighth inning and picked up her team-high seventh win of the season.
After a showdown between starting pitchers, Michigan State played small ball in the fourth inning in attempt of scoring a run off of Moody as Sarah Gutknect earned a free pass on a four-pitch walk and was moved over to second on a sacrifice bunt. McKenzie Long laid down another bunt but beat out the throw for a base hit which gave Michigan State a perfect opportunity to score but Moody shut down the next two batters to escape the frame with no runs.
The Boilermakers would respond in the fourth inning, scoring their first run of the game to take a 1-0 lead. Brooke Perry lined a single up the middle for her sixth RBI of the year that scored Madison Douglass, who was pinch-running for Alexa Binckes.
Michigan State did not trail for long as it scored two runs in the next frame to take a 2-1 lead. Purdue had an opportunity to tie or take the lead but stranded bases loaded in the fifth inning, but the case would be different in the seventh as Kristen Hoppman scored from second after an error from the shortstop with two outs that would have ended the game.
Kelcey Carrasco was the first batter in extra innings for the Spartans (15-11) and launched a solo home run over the left center field wall to take a 3-2 lead before Huffman's heroics.
The Boilermakers (13-21, 3-0) are back in action Wednesday when they take on the Fort Wayne Mastodons at 4 p.m. ET
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