BATON ROUGE, La. - Purdue (2-13) began the LSU Invitational with a 2-1 loss in extra innings to Florida Atlantic (10-8) and a 7-1 loss to No. 23 McNeese State (15-3) at Tiger Park. Sydney Bates turned in the performance of the day as she continues to get better each time she steps onto the field.
The day started with a pitchers' dual in which Bates gave the Boilermakers 9.2 innings solid innings of work. It was a good effort by the defense as well as the redshirt freshman allowed just four hits and a pair of walks while striking out six of the 36 batters she faced.
After giving up a run in the first, Bates delivered 8.2 innings of scoreless ball in order to keep Purdue in the game. The Boilermakers managed a run with two outs in the bottom of the seventh to force extra innings when Madison Douglass singled and a throwing error allowed Ryleigh Scott to score who had reached base earlier with a single of her own.
FAU was able to muster a two-out run in the 10th inning thanks to the international tiebreaker to seal Purdue's fate and hand the Boilermakers the loss.
Scott singled three times on the day and scored a run. Baker continues to swing a hot bat at the top of the lineup as she tallied a pair of hits and scored a run as well. Douglass, Stephanie Ramsey and Siena Wagner all registered a hit on the day while Jenny Behan matched Scott and Baker with a pair of base knocks.
Purdue is set for two more games Saturday, beginning with Illinois State at 1 p.m. ET and concluding with No. 10 LSU at 6 p.m.
