Purdue Calumet Puts On Offensive Display in Split with Calumet College

PUC-PeregrinsThe Purdue University Calumet softball team showed off plenty of offense in a league split with rival Calumet College of Joseph, winning Game 1, 7-5, before dropping Game 2, 9-7 in eight innings.

The Peregrines (11-11, 4-5 Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference) totaled 19 hits across the two games, including three home runs by three different players.

Purdue Calumet returns to action Wednesday for a single game at Roosevelt University starting at 7 p.m. (CT) at The Ballpark at Rosemont (Ill).

GAME 1: Purdue Calumet 7, Calumet College 5
Freshman Alex Morales (Bartlett, Ill./Bartlett) had one of her best offensive performances of the season in the day’s opener, going 3-for-3 with RBI with two doubles and a home run to lead the Peregrines in the Game 1 win.

The Crimson Wave struck first in the game, scoring three runs – two off RBI walks and another on a fielder’s choice -- in the top of the first as the Peregrines struggled to find its groove in the circle. No matter, as Purdue Calumet rattled off four runs in the bottom of the inning.

Freshman Kaitlyn Skarecky (Naperville, Ill./Naperville Central) started it off with an RBI single down the right field line to score senior Alicia Ward (Mishawaka, Ind./Jimtown), who walked and stole second base. Alison Kimble (Greenup, Ill./Cumberland) added an RBI fielder’s choice and Morales connected for her first two RBI of the game with a double to center field to put the Peregrines up, 4-3.

Senior Skyler Woods (Beecher, Ill./Beecher) belted her first home run of the season with a solo shot in the second to extend that lead to 5-3 before the fourth, when the CCSJ answered with a run on a Patty Monarrez RBI-double.

Morales was there to bolster the Peregrines’ lead again in the fifth, blasting a two-run home run over the center field wall to make the score 7-4. CCSJ’s Kristen Ashby would hit a solo home run in the sixth, but that’s all the closer the Crimson Wave would get, as Kimble shut down the visitors in the seventh to seal her sixth win of the year.

GAME 2: Calumet College 9, Purdue Calumet 7 (8 innings)
Despite a Peregrine comeback effort, CCSJ was able to come up with the winning runs in the top of the eighth to take home the CCAC split.

Calumet College tallied runs in the first and second on two solo home runs – the first by Kristen Ashby and the second by Elizabeth Fuller – to take an early 2-0 lead. Purdue Calumet would answer in the third with a solo shot of their own, as senior Alicia Ward connected for her first home run of the season with a shot over the center field fence.

After CCSJ added four more runs in the fifth to take a commanding 6-1 lead, Purdue Calumet would start its comeback, tallying four of their own scores in the bottom of the frame. Lea Hall (Catlin, Ill./Catlin) started the rally with a single up the middle and later scored on a Samantha Oppenhuis (Munster, Ind./Illiana Christian) pinch-hit, two-run single through the left side. Skarecky and Kimble added two more RBI singles to round out the scoring and bring the score to 6-5 CCSJ heading into the sixth.

After a getting out of a two-one, no-out jam in the sixth, Purdue Calumet would take the lead with two runs in the bottom of the frame, as Ward doubled to score Morales, who belted a triple to the right center wall. Woods added a sacrifice fly to round out the scoring and put the Peregrines up, 7-6.

But CCSJ would tie the ball game with the help of a Monarrez triple in the seventh and then take the lead in the eighth on a Courtney Spirek two-run home run to left field. Relief pitcher Shelby Jorgensen picked up the win, as she held the Peregrines to just one base runner in the final two innings.

Ward finished Game 2 3-for-5 at the plate with two RBI, a double and a home run and Woods finished 2-for-3 at the plate with an RBI to lead the Peregrine hitters.