The Ohio State softball team returns home today to take on the Purdue Boilermakers in a doubleheader from the new Buckeye Field. The Buckeyes are 8-1 at home this season and have won five straight in their new stadium.
Senior captain Kim Reeder (19-3) won Big Ten Pitcher of the Week after compiling three victories last week, defeating Wisconsin and Evansville. The award is Reeder’s third of the season. She will pitch game one and sophomore Lindsay Bodeker (12-3) will pitch game two for OSU.
OSU is riding the confidence of an 11-game win streak and a series sweep of the Badgers Saturday. Junior left fielder Leah Ledford was 2-4 with four RBIs in the Buckeyes’ 10-0 victory in game one. In game two it was junior third baseman Rebecca Schultz who drove in the winning run in the 11th inning in a 6-5 comeback victory.
MICHAEL LINDAWAN/THE LANTERNThe lady bucks gather around starting pitcher Megan Miller. Miller helped the Buckeyes cruise to a win over Evansville, 6-2.With the Buckeyes in first place in the Big Ten, coach Linda Kalafatis knows that every game is important, especially against a tough team like the Boilermakers.
“They are a scrappy, feisty, quick team and we are definitely going to have to play our best ball,” she said.
Purdue (23-16, 6-6 Big Ten) is 8-5 in away games and is coming off one of their biggest wins of the season, defeating the No. 10 Northwestern Wildcats in West Lafayette, Ind., on Saturday. The Boilermakers split a weekend series with the Wildcats, winning game one 2-0 and losing game two 10-8.
The Boilermakers have relied heavily on sophomore pitcher Suzie Rzegocki this season. Rzegocki (18-10) has appeared in 33 of Purdue’s 39 games and started 28 of those contests. Rzegocki’s 1.51 ERA is fifth in the Big Ten.
OSU’s offense has been effective this year, scoring runs even when the team has struggled to find hits. The Buckeyes are first in the Big Ten in runs scored with 241 and fourth in team batting average at .285.
Wednesday’s doubleheader marks the first two games of a six-game home stand for OSU. The Buckeyes will take on Oakland Sunday and Western Michigan April 29. The Buckeyes return to conference play to take on the Northwestern Wildcats on the road in Evanston Ill., May 2.
Kalafatis prefers not to pay attention to rankings and in many instances has withheld the results of other conference games from her team to keep them focused. OSU controls its Big Ten destiny, and that’s how Kalafatis likes it.
“It’s all up to us, it’s still in our hands it’s about what we do from here on out,” she said.
Game two of the Purdue series will be broadcast by Scarlet and Gray Sports Radio online at ohiostatesports.net.
Evan Winkofsky can be reached at [email protected].
