Triple play: Purdue softball pitchers 1-hit Cardinals

Boiler bats and lights-out pitching performances propelled Purdue past Ball State in the Boilermakers’ last non-conference game of the season.

Purdue (23-22, 9-8 Big Ten) scored four runs in the fifth inning and allowed a single hit to take down Ball State (22-25, 9-11 MAC) and improve to a winning record with a 6-1 win.

“Our defense was okay, our pitchers were really really good and our hitters were a little bit slow in the beginning but we turned it up and they were great,” head coach Magali Frezzotti said after the game.

Here are three major moments from the game:

Big hits for both teams

The Cardinals struck first with a solo home run in the top of the second inning.

Ball State’s Kaitlyn Mathews led off the second inning by getting a hold of the third pitch she saw and depositing it just beyond the center field fence.

Mathews’ homer gave Ball State an early 1-0 lead over Purdue and turned out to be the Cardinals’ only hit in the first five innings.

The Boilers got onto the board in the bottom of the fourth, tying the game with a solo shot of their own.

Junior shortstop Tyrina Jones fell behind in the count, 0-2, before bashing the payoff pitch over the left field wall to tie the game.

4-run 5th inning

After Jones single handedly tied the game in the fourth inning, the Boiler bats worked together to push across four more runs with five hits in the fifth.

Sophomore outfielder Khloe Banks and freshman utility player Ashlynn Campbell got the party started with back-to-back singles up the middle, populating the bases and putting pressure on Ball State’s pitcher.

Freshman outfielder Moriah Polar then brought the Boilers home with a scorching stand-up triple that found its way all the way to the fence in right-center field.

Polar finished the game with a game-leading three hits in four at-bats.

Junior outfielder Kyndall Bailey couldn’t keep the hit streak, as she walked on four straight pitches, before stealing second to set up the RBI chance.

After another four-pitch walk to Jones, who tied the game with a home run the inning prior, junior third baseman Sage Scarmardo’s single through the left side scored Polar and Bailey easily and put Purdue up 5-1 after five innings.

Dominant pitching prevents comeback

Purdue’s two pitchers allowed just one run on one hit through 25 batters faced.

Junior starter Madi Elish threw just 34 pitches in the first three innings, allowing the Cardinals’ only hit and run on the home run in the second.

Her replacement, junior Kendall Klochack, pitched the remaining four innings without surrendering a hit.

After entering the game in the fourth inning, Klochack immediately set the tone.

The lefty struck out the first batter she faced, then forced a groundout right back to herself before finishing the inning with another strikeout.

Klochack struck out seven of the 14 batters she faced, walking just one in the four innings she pitched.

Klochack earned her seventh win of the season (7-3) and lowered her ERA to 3.11 with the four scoreless innings.

The Boilers will head to College Park, Maryland, next for their penultimate series of the regular season. They’ll take on the Terrapins (19-27, 4-13) in the first game Friday at 6 p.m., streaming on Big Ten+.

“It’s gonna be a good fight,” Frezzotti said about the Maryland matchup. “If we can show up like we did today from the fourth inning on, it's gonna be like we want it.”