MADISON, Wis. - The Wisconsin Badger softball team secured the series win with one game left to play after the weekend's second 7-0 victory against the Purdue Boilermakers.
Wisconsin's (19-10, 6-2) Katie Keller drew a walk in the game's first at-bat before Kayla Konwent followed her up with a single up the middle. Brooke Kuffel took advantage of the fact that Keller was in scoring position at third and sent a sacrifice fly out to right field, allowing Keller to tag up and hustle home to give Wisconsin the 1-0 advantage. Peyton Bannon increased that lead with a squeeze bunt up the first baseline giving Marytherese Nevin, pinch-running for Konwent, enough time to score the team's second run.
Purdue (17-21, 2-8) was able to load the bases in the bottom of the inning after going 2-for-3 in the first three at-bats. However, despite also giving up a walk, senior Tessa Magnanimo sent the three Boilermaker runners back to the dugout with a huge strikeout to end the inning and deny a score.
Continuing where the Badgers offense left off in the first inning, Ellie Hubbard sent a long ball over the Boilermaker's left fielder for the sophomore's first triple of the season. Molly Schlosser added another RBI to her stat line while bringing Hubbard home on a fielder's choice to first base in games second inning.
The fifth inning brought in another run for the Badgers with Bannon's second RBI of the day, sending a shallow line drive to right field where the attempted diving play was unsuccessful, and Konwent scored easily. Rylie Crane got back on the board with a bobbled single to right field allowing Bannon and Alyssa McClelland, pinch-running for Christaana Angelopolus after a fielders choice, to cross home plate. Wisconsin was not done yet as Skylar Sirdashney smacked a single up the middle and advanced to second on the throw while Crane made her way to third base. However, both runners were stranded on a ground out the next play.
Molly Schlosser and Kayla Konwent both singled in the sixth inning, yet nothing came from the two hits, and the Badgers went into the bottom of the inning with a 6-0 lead.
With two frames left to play, Christaana Angelopolus gave Wisconsin an insurance run with a bomb over the right-center field wall for the junior's second home run of the year. Starting pitcher Tessa Magnanimo closed out the game after retiring the side and the Badgers won 7-0 for the second time this weekend.
Magnanimo earned the first shutout of her career in her seven-inning, complete-game outing. The senior gave up only four hits and struck out six of the 28 batters she faced. With the win, Magnanimo improves to 4-1 on the year.
"Batting Cleanup"
- Emily Bojan added a single in the seventh inning putting her at 3-for-4 on the year with a .750 batting average
- Kayla Konwent went 2-for-2 with two walks
- This marks back-to-back shutouts for the Badger pitching staff and fifth so far this season
Up Next: The Wisconsin Badgers will close out the series against Purdue in tomorrow's 1:00 p.m C.T. game before returning to Madison for a stretch of home games.
