By Seth Schwartz
Staff Writer

All Purdue softball coach Carol Bruggeman asked Heidi Foster to do in the first game against Ball State Monday was hit the ball deep.

The bases were loaded. It was the bottom of the eighth inning. Neither team had scored through seven previous innings. There was one out after Katie Crabtree failed to follow through on the same directions and popped out to the Cardinals' second baseman.

Foster, however, didn't have any problem driving the ball as she hit it over the outfield fence for the first grand slam of her career. The Boilermakers won the game 4-0.

When she rounded third base, which was where Bruggeman had been standing, Foster asked her if that was deep enough.

"That was overwhelming," Foster said. "That was my first grand slam. I’ve hit a lot of homeruns in my lifetime, but that one was so breathtaking. I felt so good because it won the game for us and we really needed the win."

Sophomore Meagan Dooley (11-7, 0.51 ERA) pitched her sixth shutout and 10th complete game this season. She gave up only two hits and no walks.

In the second game of the doubleheader, the defense made two costly errors in the second inning, which led to a Cardinal run.

After Ball State scored another run in the top of the fourth inning, Foster stepped back up to the plate to lead off the bottom of the inning and knocked out her second homerun of the day, closing the deficit to 2-1.

Foster said that the grand slam gave her confidence going into the second game.

"I started off the second game with a hit and then I hit another homerun, so it gave me a lot of confidence," she said.

Foster finished the day 3-for-6, with two homeruns, two runs scored and five RBIs.

The Cardinals scored once more in the fifth inning after Leighann Burke (9-9, 2.35 ERA) put two runners on base in the fifth. Nicole Crouse came in and put another runner on and walked in a run.

"I could tell we’ve had a week off from competition," Bruggeman said. "We weren’t quite on our game. We weren’t that sharp on our defense, even our pitching was off. Leighann and Nicole both got behind a lot of hitters, that’s just not them."

The Boilers, down 4-1 going into the bottom of the fifth inning, scored a run in the fifth and the sixth innings to tie the game at 3-3.

The score remained tied at three-a-piece into the bottom of the seventh inning. Purdue's Jessica Jones led off the inning with a single down the left field line and was bunted to second by Chrissy Davie. Angi Roembke then walked, setting up runners on first and second for Crystal Inman.

Inman sent a shot over the center fielder's head that one-hopped to the wall. The hit sent Jones flying around third toward home. She was there by the time Ball State had caught up to the ball in the outfield, giving Purdue a 4-3 come from behind victory.

Crouse (5-5) received credit for the victory. She pitched 2 2/3 innings in relief of Burke, allowing only one hit.

"We had so many runners on today. We left more runners on base than I can remember leaving on for a long time." Bruggeman said. "We hit the ball well that second game. We obviously should’ve scored more runs than four, but I’ll take one more than the other team any day."