Boiler rallies fall short in 3-2, 8-6 losses.
Feb. 12, 2000
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -
The Purdue softball team (1-4, 0-0 Big Ten) came up short in two come-from-behind rallies on Saturday at the UT-Arlington Tournament in Grand Prairie, Texas. The Boilers fell 8-6 in extra innings to Baylor and 3-2 to Arkansas.
"We played much better today," coach Carol Bruggeman said. "In both games we were one swing from ending up on the winning side. We have a lot of youth on our team, and I think we learned a lot about ourselves as a team and individually. We were more aggressive on offense, but we need to put the ball in play more consistently. We need to cut down on our strike outs and come through in clutch situations"
Against Arkansas the Boilermakers rallied from an early two run deficit scoring runs in the fifth and sixth innings only to see the Razorbacks rally in the seventh to steal the win. Freshman Jesse Jones got the Boilermakes on the board when she led off the fifth inning with a single and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by sophomore Keely Povlitz. Jones advanced to third on a single by senior Danica Maher, who was replaced at first by freshman Angi Roembke. Jones came home as Arkansas catcher Dancia Howlette's throw ended up in the outfield on Roembke's steal of second.
In the sixth the Razorbacks replaced starting pitcher Rachel Talley with Tami Kincaid, whom promptly served up a solo home run to Katie Crabtree on the first pitch of the inning. The home run was the second of the tournament for the sophomore.
In the home half of the seventh the Boilermakers saw their rally slip away when Razorback infielder Tiffany Woolley hit a one out single to right. Sophomore Nicole Crouse replaced starter Meagan Dooley and struck out Andy Whorton before giving up the game winning single to Erin Stokey.
Dooley (0-2) took the loss for Purdue, allowing three runs, only one of them earned, in 6.1 innings of work.
The Boilers jumped out to an early 2-0 first inning lead in the afternoon game against Baylor on Crabtree's solo home run, her third, and an RBI single by Chrissy Davie. Purdue couldn't hold the lead as the Bears scored three, two out runs in the top half of the second and one in the fourth.
Purdue answered with a run in the bottom of the third and two in the fourth to take a 5-4 lead. Crabtree led off the fourth with a double to left-center and was moved to third on a sac-bunt by senior Skeeter Nixon. Davie collected her second RBI of the game, plating Crabtree with a single to right.
In the fifth freshman Jesse Jones reached first on a wild throw from Bear's third baseman Jennifer Polk. Freshman Jill Paxson, pinch running for Jones advanced to second on a single by Roembke. Sophomore Danika Nice sacrificed the pair to second and third on a bunt to the pitcher. Junior Lynne Tortorelli brought Paxson home on an infield single. Tortorelli and Roembke advanced to second and third, respectively, on the play when the Bear infield could not get a hold of the ball. After an intentional walk to Crabtree to load the bases, Nixon hit a looping fly ball to center to score Roembke.
The score remained 5-4 until the top of the sixth when the Bears evened the score on an unearned run on a walk, an error and a wild pitch. The game headed to extra innings as both teams were not able to put anything together in the seventh.
In the eighth, with the NCAA extra inning rule of starting a runner starting on second, the Bears were able to score three runs on a sacrifice bunt, a single and a home run by Holly Fields. The Boilers rallied scoring one, but weren't able to do any more damage, leaving runners on first and third.
Sophomore Nicole Crouse (0-1) was tagged for the loss in relief of freshman Leighann Burke who pitched 5.2 innings.
The team will travel to Raleigh, N.C. next weekend to participate in North Carolina's Triangle Classic.