Ohio State softball falls flat vs. Purdue in Big Ten Tournament
Ohio State softball falls flat vs. Purdue in Big Ten Tournament
It's been a great year for the Ohio State softball team, but it picked the wrong time to hit a snag on Thursday night.
The Buckeyes' offense -- which leads the country in several categories -- started out hot by putting four runs on the board in the bottom of the first inning, but then hit the doldrums the rest of the way against host Purdue, eventually losing 14-6 to the No. 12 seed.
It wasn't just the offense that was a problem for OSU. The pitching by freshman Lorin Boutte was great until the fourth inning. She started the contest by retiring the first three batters and made it into the top of the fourth inning with a shutout going. But then, some costly errors and control issues by the pitcher let Purdue claw its way back into the contest, eventually plating four runs to tie it after four innings of play.
Meanwhile, Ohio State's bats went cold after the Boilermakers made a pitching change. They went from a drop ball pitcher to a rise, and it seemed to baffle and stymie the Scarlet and Gray offense until the Buckeyes were able to finally get two more runs on the board when the outcome was already decided in the bottom of the seventh inning.
While OSU's bats went cold, Purdue kept connecting in front of the home crowd in West Lafayette. The Boilers scored three runs in the top of the fifth inning to take a 7-4 lead, then tallied a whopping seven runs in the top of the seventh inning to put things out of reach.
The loss ends Ohio State's short-lived run in the Big Ten Tournament well before anyone thought, but there's still the NCAA Tournament to look forward to. Surely the Buckeyes have done enough to easily get into the field, though a small chance of hosting a regional is now down the drain.
We'll have more about Ohio State's path in the NCAA Tournament when the field is announced on Sunday.
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