Boilers to get another chance to enter win column in Big Ten play Thursday

Purdue is welcoming its first conference opponent of the season to Bittinger Stadium Friday.

Boilermaker softball faces off against Rugters (20-13, 2-1 Big Ten) this weekend. After the Boilermakers (12-17, 0-3) lost a battle to Michigan (20-11, 3-0) last weekend, they are now looking to turn the tide and collect their first Big Ten victory.

Purdue will begin its three-game series against the Scarlet Knights Friday. Purdue may have trouble keeping pace with what has so far been an effective Rutgers offense. The Scarlet Knights are ranked 10th in the Big Ten in batting with an overall average of .279. Rutgers, on the other hand, is ranked fifth in batting with an overall average of .301.

Purdue’s Sage Scarmardo wields an impressive .405 batting average, and is ranked eighth overall in the Big Ten, but is beaten out by Rutgers’ Morgan Smith’s .426.

As for pitching, Purdue still lags a bit behind. Rutgers’ two most prominent pitchers, Maddie Boyd and Morgan Smith, boast an impressive sub-3.00 ERA’s, and are both ranked in the Big Ten’s top 15. On the other hand, Purdue’s top pitchers, Kendall Klochack and Madi Elish, pitch a 3.69 and 3.74 ERA respectively.

The Rutgers series is a chance for the Boilers to get into the win column in Big Ten play after dropping the first conference series to Michigan, where the temperatures kept near freezing all weekend.

In the third and final game of the series, freshman Moriah Polar launched a triple to the right side, allowing Purdue to take the lead at 1-0 early on. Although Michigan did score in the later innings, the Boilermakers were able to keep the deficit down to only 1 until the sixth, where Michigan scored three runs to ice the game 6-2.

On Day 2, despite the continued freezing weather, the Boilermakers opened strong. In the first inning, after a single by Ashlynn Campbell allowed Khloe Banks to make it home, Tyrina Jones smoked a centerfield home run, allowing Campbell and Jones to reach home and bring the score up to 3-0.

The rest of the game was not as fortunate, and Michigan came out stronger, bringing the score to 8-3 by the start of the second inning. The Boilermakers landed three more hits, but left them stranded while Michigan continued scoring, leading to an early, fifth-inning finish to the Boilers’ 11-3 loss.

Purdue was shut out in the first game 7-0. Although the Boilermakers landed three hits throughout the game, with sophomore Sage Scarmardo hitting a double early on, Jones landing a single in the sixth inning and Polar doing the same in the seventh, the Boilermakers were unable to get runs on the board, resulting in a 7-0 final.

Scarmardo’s double in the first game of the series brought her hitting streak up to 15 games.

The first pitch in the Rutgers series will be thrown out at 5 p.m. Friday at Bittinger Stadium. Tickets are free admission.