Michigan State University
8-20, 1-5
Purdue
18-17-1, 5-1
Spartans Split Doubleheader at Purdue
3/30/2014 12:00:00 AM | Softball
March 30, 2014
East Lansing, Mich. - - Michigan State split a doubleheader with Purdue (6-3, 1-10) on Sunday afternoon in West Lafayette, earning its first win this season in Big Ten play but dropping the season series to the Boilermakers, 2-1. The Spartans, down to two healthy pitchers, saw freshman Valerie Kaff throw 10.2 innings over the two games, including a complete-game win in the first contest of the day and 3.2 innings of relief in the nightcap.
MSU falls to 8-20 on the year, and is 1-5 in the Big Ten. MSU snapped Purdue's seven-game winning streak in the first game, but the Boilers are now 18-17-1, and 5-1 in Conference play.
Purdue centerfielder Andie Varsho was a combined 5-for-7 on the day, and ascended into second place in the all-time Purdue recordbook for career hits.
Spartan freshmen led the way today - in addition to Kaff, Kassidy Kujawa went 3-for-3 over the two games, while classmate Sarah Gutknecht went 2-for-3 with a homer and three RBI in the game one win. Freshman catcher Lindsey Besson also had a hit in each game.
Michigan State 6, Purdue 3
Box Score
Freshman Sarah Gutknecht had a home run and three RBI while classmate Kassidy Kujawa also had two hits and Valerie Kaff tossed a complete-game seven-hitter to down Purdue, 6-3, in the first half of the double-dip. The win snapped a four-game skid for MSU as well as halted Purdue's seven-game winning streak.
Alyssa McBride extended her hitting streak to four games, while Gutknecht hit her team-best fifth home run of the year, a two-run shot in the bottom of the third inning. Kaff came through with a much-needed clutch performance in a complete game, as the Spartans are down to just two healthy pitchers. She got run support in the form of a pair of scores in each the first, third, and fourth innings as well.
The Spartans got something going right away, as McKinzie Freimuth drew a leadoff walk, KassidyKujawa was hit by a pitch, and Gutknecht ripped an RBI double to left to plate Freimuth for a 1-0 lead just three batters into the game. Two batters later, Destinee Luna's fly ball left was snagged by as Maia Monchek, but Kujawa tagged up and scored. Fecho got out of the inning with a strikeout, but spotted the Spartans a 2-0 lead after one inning.
The Spartans were back at it in the second, as McBride walked to lead off the inning, and Lindsey Besson sacrificed her over to second base. However, Fecho got both Bowling and Freimuth to strike out, leaving McBride on second.
In the top of the third,Mary Gooding laced a one-out single through the left side, and advanced to second when Gabi Brown walked. Varsho, grounded out to second, and Monchek worked a full count with two runners in scoring position, but Kaff got her to pop out to Reiser at second to preserve MSU's 2-0 advantage.
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Kujawa led off the bottom of the third with a single, and advanced to second on an error. Guknecht followed with her fifth homer of the season, a shot to right center, for her second hit of the day and third RBI. Thomas fouled out, and Luna was robbed of a hit for the second time of the day to bring pinch hitter Ellie Stoffer to the plate with two outs. She worked the count into a walk, but was caught stealing to end the inning - but not before Gutknecht had given the Spartans a 4-0 lead.
In the fourth, McBride singled up the middle to lead off the Spartans' half of the inning, and Besson reached base to put runners at first and second for Reiser. She advanced them both over a base, bringing Freimuth to the plate. An intended sacrifice bunt, a miscommunication in the Boiler infield allowed Freimuth to reach base and two runs to score, and Freimuth was then thrown out trying to take second on the miscue.
Kujawa then smacked two-out double to right, which signaled the end of the day for Fecho . She was replaced in the circle by Lexi Moore, who had to face Gutknecht as her first batter. She walked on four pitches, but then Moore struck out both Thomas and pinch hitter Stephanie Sanders to end the Spartan threat, stranding two runners. However, MSU led 6-0 after four innings, and the teams headed to the fifth.
The Boilers led off the sixth with three straight hits - back -to-back singles, and a RBI double by reigning Big Ten Player of the Week Tori Chiodo - put the first run on the board with no outs and two runners on base. Burkhardt and Fletcher hit back-to-back sacrifice flies to bring two more runs home, but after McJunkin singled to right, Andrew popped out to short to end the inning, with MSU leading 6-3.
The Spartans went down in order in bottom of the fifth and sixth innings, unable to pad the score with any insurance runs, sending Kaff back to the circle looking for three outs to close out a victory in the top of the seventh. Kristen Hoppman led off, but Kaff got her to strike out swining for the first out of the inning. CJ Parson then pinch hit for Lexi Valone, but Kaff got her to fly out on a 1-2 pitch to bring Purdue to its final chance. Varsho bunted her way onto base for her third hit of the day, but Monchek grounded out to Reiser at second to end the game.
Purdue 10, MSU 1
Box Score
Purdue took game two by a 10-1 score on 10 hits, including two home runs. The Spartans committed three errors in the game, and were limited to five hits in the nightcap. After picking up the game-one complete-game victory, Valerie Kaff threw 3.2 innings in the nightcap, relieving Kelly Smith early in the contest and entering with a 3-0 deficit.
Kassidy Kujawa had a hit and six putouts in left field in game two, and led all Spartans with three hits on the day. Alyssa McBride continued her hitting streak, pushing it to five games, while Freimuth also had a hit in each game on the day.
Danielle Fletcher led off the top of the second with a homer to left to give the Boilers a 1-0 lead, and Varsho followed suit with a two-run shot in the top of the third to give Purdue a 3-0 lead. Kaff came in to relieve Kelly Smith with one out in the top of the inning; Smith had walked three and surrendered the two home runs. She retired the next two batters to get out of the inning, but then gave up one in the top of the fourth, as McJunkin led off the inning with a double, advanced to third on a Parsons groundout, and came home on MSU's first error of the day. That gave Purdue a 4-0 lead.
In the bottom of the fourth, Kujawa got on base when she was hit by a pitch; Moore got Gutknecht on a strikeout, and Sanders singled up the middle to put two runners on for MSU. That brought Alyssa McBride to the plate, and a seeing-eye single beneath the glove of a diving second-baseman up the middle plated Kujawa to cut the Boiler lead to 1-0. Lindsey Besson reached on a fielder's choice, snagging pinch runner Ellie Storffer at third, to leave runners at first and second for Destinee Luna; but she grounded out to short to strand two and send the teams to the fifth inning, with MSU trailing 4-1
Burkhardt lied a one-out single to center to put a runner on early in the fifth, Fletcher then followed with a scorcher down the third-base line to put a pair of runners in scoring position with just one out. McJunkin then delivered a shot that was ruled an error but nonetheless scored two, and Parsons followed with a standup double to make it 7-1 in favor of Purdue.
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In the top of the sixth, Varsho made history with her fifth hit of the day, moving into second place on Purdue's all-time hits list. After Monchek reached on an error, Chiodo's RBI signle pushed Varsho across for an 8-1 lead; after Kaff got Burkhardt to pop out to second, Fletcher and McJunkin hit back-to-back singles to make it 9-1 and load the bases. Andrew came in and sent a sacrifice fly into left to plate the third run of the inning for Purdue. Kaff struck out Valone to get out of the inning, but MSU had a tall task to come back with one final at-bat to keep the game going.
Kujawa led off the bottom of the sixth to give the Spartans some life, and Gutknecht reached on a fielder's choice. Pinch hitter Ellie Stoffer grounded into a 4-6-3 double play to end the game.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Moore, L. (3-7)
L: Smith, Kelly (2-9)
Batting:
2B: Varsho, A. 1 ; Fletcher, D. 1 ; McJunkin, K. 1 ; Andrew, P. 1
HR: Varsho, A. 1 ; Fletcher, D. 1
RBI: Varsho, A. 2 ; Chiodo, T. 1 ; Fletcher, D. 2 ; Andrew, P. 2 ; Gooding, M. 1
SH: Brown, G. 1
SF: Andrew, P. 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Varsho, A. 2 ; Monchek, M. 1 ; Chiodo, T. 1 ; Burkhardt 1 ; Fletcher, D. 2 ; McJunkin, K. 2 ; Hoppman, K. 1
Batting:
RBI: McBride, Alyssa 1
SH: Kujawa, Kassidy 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Kujawa, Kassidy 1
HBP: Kujawa, Kassidy 1
