By Gavin Greer
Purdue Fort Wayne women’s baseball team took part in the Bob Heck Classic in Georgia this weekend. From Friday to Sunday PFW played five games. On Friday they played Rhode Island and Georgia State, Saturday they played Eastern Kentucky and Rhode Island and finally on Sunday they played Georgia State again.
In the first game of the Classic, PFW picked up their first win of the season. This win came on Friday in a 6-1 victory over Rhode Island. Grace Hollopeter was the star of this game. She went 2/3 batting, hitting two homeruns and getting four RBIs. Pitcher Alanah Jones threw seven strikeouts and added a home run for PFW.
The second game PFW played Friday ended in a 5-6 loss to Georgia State. Hollopeter and Jones stayed hot as they both hit a home run.
On Saturday PFW picked up two more wins. The first came against Eastern Kentucky. The Mastodons won this game 2-1. Jones continued her success in the Classic as she pitched again, and this time tallied five strike outs. She also added to her homerun total as she went yard again.
Then later in the day PFW beat Rhode Island again, this time 12-3. Taryn Jenkins was the star of this game as she batted 2/3, hit two home runs and gathered five RBIs. Hollopeter also added a home run.
On the final day of the Classic, PFW had a rematch with Georgia State. This time PFW lost 6-7. Jenkins was the star again as she batted 2/3 and had two RBIs. While PFW batted well in this matchup, the defense allowed too many runs.
The Mastodons performance in this Classic should hopefully boost the team’s morale as they saw a lot of improvement at the plate. Going into the classic the team had only 16 hits and one run through six games. The team has hopefully found their stride and will continue playing well.
PFW will kick off their play in the Evansville’s 2023 Aces Home Tournament #2 on Friday. They will play their first game of the tournament at 10 a.m. versus Bowling Green. Later in the day at 12:30 p.m., they will play the host Evansville.
PFW is now 3-8 on the season. The team will look to improve this record as they will have five games in this tournament next weekend.