The Ohio State softball team takes a break from its tough Big Ten schedule today to take on the Evansville Purple Aces at 5 p.m. at Buckeye Field.
The Buckeyes are 32-6 for the season after a weekend sweep of the Illinois Fighting Illini, and are tied with Big Ten powerhouse Northwestern for first place in the conference at 9-1. OSU has won eight games in a row after an emotional 17-15 comeback win behind junior second baseman Whitney Cooper’s game-winning two-run home run in the bottom of the sixth inning.
Evansville (10-25) is winless in all seven of its road contests this season. The Purple Aces, out of the Missouri Valley Conference, have won their last two contests following a seven game losing skid. The two victories over Bradley last weekend also marked Evansville’s first two conference wins of the season.
Last week freshman first basemen Kylie Wagner was 9-for-12, knocking in seven runs and receiving honors as Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Week. Wagner also sees significant time inside the circle, sports a 3.33 ERA in 22 appearances and will start today for Evansville.
The Buckeyes are coming off one of their best offensive outputs of the season, scoring 22 runs on Illinois last weekend. Junior catcher Sam Marder leads OSU in batting average (.391), home runs (15) and RBI (36).
OSU’s magic number has been three this season. When the Buckeyes have scored more than three runs they are 26-1, helped by a combined team ERA of 1.59.
Senior captain Kim Reeder will be the starting pitcher for the Buckeyes. Reeder is 16-3 on the season and has a 1.38 ERA. In her last appearance, Reeder gave up eight runs on eight hits through two and two-thirds innings. Reeder was making a relief appearance for sophomore Lindsay Bodeker and had pitched seven innings the day before.
Reeder will look to turn things around against Krista Price and the Purple Aces. The junior catcher leads the team with a .364 batting average and is just four home runs shy of the career record at Evansville of 23.
OSU is halfway through its Big Ten season and returns to conference play Saturday, April 18 against the Wisconsin Badgers in Madison, Wisc.
Evan Winkofsky can be reached at [email protected].
