Northwestern Drops Second Game Of Series at Purdue, 6-3

4/7/2018 4:34:00 PM | Softball

Box Score

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – For the second-straight game, Northwestern fell behind early against Purdue and launched a comeback only to end up just short, dropping a 6-3 decision Saturday to the Boilermakers.

Northwestern now is 22-13 overall on the season, 5-5 in the Big Ten. Purdue is 10-27 on the year, 3-5 in the conference.

The two teams meet again in the series finale at noon CT/1 p.m. ET tomorrow, Sunday, April8 before Northwestern returns home April 13-15 to host No. 23 Ohio State at Sharon J. Drysdale Field.

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Sabrina Rabin simply would not be denied in scoring the game's first run in the top of the first. She led off the contest with a FIFTEEN (15)-pitch walk, moved to second on a Marissa Panko sacrifice, then stole third and raced home on a throwing error to give Northwestern a 1-0 edge without the benefit of a hit.

Purdue tied the game right away in the bottom of the first. With the bases loaded and one out, the Boilermakers got an RBI groundout but Wildcats' starter Nicole Bond was able to fan the next batter to strand two in scoring position and keep the contest tied going into the second.

The Boilermakers did put more on the board in the third. A single and a two-run home game gave Purdue a 3-1 lead, then the next two batters reached as well. Kenna Wilkey entered the circle in relief of Bond at that point, and limited further damage to one more run on a sacrifice fly to make it a 4-1 contest after three complete. In the bottom of the fourth, however, Purdue got a two-run home to extend its lead to five, 6-1.

After that two-run homer, Wilkey settled down, at one point striking out four batters in a row heading into the sixth inning. There, Purdue hit Rachel Lewis with a pitch in front of a Sammy Nettling two-run blast over the wall in left that cut the deficit to three, 6-3. For Nettling, the home run was her first of the season and the eighth of her career.

With the score the same in the top of the seventh, NU went down in order to end the game.

Bond (2-2) took the loss, allowing four runs on four hits and four walks with a strikeout in two-plus inning. Wilkey threw 4.0 innings of relief, allowing two runs on three hits and two walks with four strikeouts.

At the plate, Nettling led NU with her two-run home run.