PALOS HEIGHTS, Ill. – The Purdue University Northwest softball team swept its second-straight conference opponent with 6-1 and 3-0 victories over host Trinity Christian College Wednesday.
The Pride improved to 25-21 overall and 14-9 in the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference with the two wins after PNW swept Roosevelt in a pair on Tuesday.
PNW returns to action Friday with a nonleague twin bill against West Virginia Tech at Dowling Park’s Fifth Third Bank Field. Game 1 is set to start at 2 p.m. CT.
GAME 1: PNW 6, TCC 1
Taylor Kotzo (Munster, Ind./Munster) and Kyleigh Payne (Bourbonnais, Ill./Bishop McNamara) both went 2-for-4 with two RBI each and teammate Tessa Steffens (Litchfield, Ill./Litchfield) went 2-for-4 with an RBI to lead Purdue Northwest’s batters in the opening win.
Senior Audrey Headley (Lafayette, Ind./McCutcheon) picked up her second-straight win in the circle, scattering eight hits, striking out one and allowing just one earned run in the complete-game outing to improve to 4-4 on the year.
PNW opened the game with a run in the first inning when Payne doubled to left field with two outs. That set up Steffens for an RBI hit down the right-field line to give the Pride an early 1-0 lead. PNW would add another score in the second on Taylor Kotzo RBI-single to score Olivia Sardella (Dyer, Ind./Lake Central, who walked.
PNW’s biggest inning came in the fourth when the Pride exploded for three runs – two on a Payne single up the middle and another on a Kotzo single. The Pride would add their final run in the sixth on a Haley Loden (Crown Point, Ind./Lake Central) single.
GAME 2: PNW 3, TCC 0
Senior Caroline Brown (Minooka, Ill./Minooka) tossed yet another shutout to pick up her 13th win of the year and scattered five hits in a complete game outing to lead the Pride the two-game sweep.
PNW again too an early lead in the first inning, which started with a Kotzo double to left field. She would later score on a Tessa Steffens RBI single to make it 1-0 PNW. The Pride added another run in the fourth on a Hannah Lopez (Granada Hills, Calif./Bishop Alemany) RBI single.
Tessa Steffens’ RBI fielder’s choice in the seventh would complete PNW’s scoring and was more than enough for Brown, who captured her fourth shutout of the season.
Kotzo finished 2-for-4, senior Samantha Oppenhuis (Munster, Ind./Illiana Christian) went 2-for-3 , and Steffens was 1-for-4 with two RBI to lead PNW’s hitters.