Feb. 26, 2011
WOODSTOCK, Ga. - The Boilermaker softball team squeezed out three runs in the eighth-inning and held the Georgia State Panthers to just two in the stanza to post a 5-4 victory on Saturday afternoon to open play at the Phyllis Rafter Memorial Tournament.
Purdue piled up five runs on 13 hits, including five multi-hit efforts. Senior Shelby Krammer and freshmen Danielle Fletcher, Kim McMillan, Lindsey Rains and Andie Varsho each managed two hits.
Senior Suzie Rzegocki (5-2) picked up the win for the Boilermakers, allowing just two runs in four innings of relief work. Sophomore Erika Petruzzi and junior Katie Hackney also pitched in the contest for Purdue. Reliever Erin Collins (1-1) was saddled with the loss for GSU, allowing the three runs in the eighth. Alana Thomas and McCall Langford also saw time in the circle for the Panthers.
With the game tied at 2-2 in the eighth, Varsho was placed on second base to the start the inning due to the international tie-breaker rule. Rains reached on a bunt single, but the pitcher's throw to first sailed wide, allowing Varsho to come home on the play. A sacrifice pushed Rains to third, from which she scored on a Krammer double to center. The hit brought Langford into the game for GSU, and she delivered a wild pitch to advance Krammer to third. Fletcher brought Krammer home with a single to center. A ground out to the pitcher finally ended the inning.
Georgia State fought back in the bottom of the eighth, putting up a pair of runs on two hits and an error. A leadoff single put runners at the corners for the Panthers. A sacrifice fly cut the Purdue lead to 5-3. A single gave GSU runners at first and second with one out. A throwing error by the shortstop allowed another base runner and made it a one-run game. The Boilermaker defense held, recording the final two outs by catching a runner stealing and issuing a strikeout.
Rains and Petruzzi managed a pair of two-out singles in the first, but were unable to score. With runners at first and third, Petruzzi swiped second, but Rains was thrown out at the plate on the continuation of the play.
The Panthers answered with a hit in the bottom of the inning, but the runner was caught stealing to end the stanza.
Purdue broke onto the scoreboard in the second thanks to a two-run bomb off the bat of McMillan, a Powder Springs, Ga., native. McMillan's long ball drove in senior Shelby Krammer, who was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning.
Varsho provided a one-out single in the third, but was called for leaving early on a stolen base attempt for the inning's second out.
McMillan, Fletcher and freshman Lauren Grant loaded the bases in the fourth on a trio of two-out singles, but a pop up kept Purdue from adding to its lead.
Georgia State leveled the score with a two-run shot in the fourth. Lauren Jones supplied the long ball, driving in Jessica Clifton, who bounced a double off the center field wall to start the inning. Hackney took over in the circle following the hit and, despite allowing two base runners, escaped the inning unscathed.
Varsho lifted a double into the left center gap in the fifth and went to third on a ground out, but another grounder left her stranded.
Rzegocki took over in the circle to start the fifth. GSU filled the bases on a fielder's choice, a single and a two-out walk, but came up empty.
The Panthers had a runner at second with two outs in the seventh, but failed to score due to a pop up to short.
The Boilermakers (6-3) return to action at 6 p.m. ET when they take on Tennessee State.