April 25, 2008
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West Lafayette, IN – The 25th-ranked University of Iowa softball team defeated Purdue, 3-2, Friday afternoon at Varsity Softball Complex. Iowa scored all three of its runs in the top of the fifth inning.
“We are able to manufacture some runs today when we needed them,” Head Coach Gayle Blevins said. “We were aggressive on the bases and it was the difference for us today.”
The Hawkeyes took advantage of three Boilermaker errors with two outs in the top of the fifth.
With one out in the inning, senior Summer Downs doubled down the left field line and was lifted for pinch-runner Callie Adreon at second. Sophomore Katie Brown singled to center and Adreon moved to third base. Freshman Jenny Schuelke replaced Brown at first and then stole second base. Senior Emily Nichols hit a ground ball to second and Adreon was thrown out at home, but Schuelke moved to third. Sophomore Lindsey Digmann followed with a slap grounder to shortstop and an errant throw to first allowed Schuelke to score. Digmann then attempted to steal second and the throw from the Boilermaker catcher bounced into the outfield, which let Nichols score the second run of the frame. Junior Brittany Weil then entered the game to hit and slapped a hard ground ball to third that was mishandled, allowing Digmann to plate another Hawkeye run.
Purdue cut into Iowa’s lead in the bottom of the fifth with one run. Ashley Hall tripled to right field and scored on a Hawkeye throwing error during the play.
The Boilermakers made things interesting in its last at-bat, but Iowa was able to record the victory. With two outs in the frame, leadoff hitter Hall doubled and scored on a single by Kelly Miller. Weil then struck out the final batter of the game to give the Hawkeyes their 34th win overall and their 11th in Big Ten play.
Weil tossed a complete game and tallied 10 strikeouts in her 21st victory this season.
Iowa and Purdue will finish the two-game series Saturday at 11 a.m. (CDT).