Already short on players with the senior second baseman Gina Mondo out for the game with an injury, the Spartans were dealt another blow when sophomore first baseman Heidi Purtzer had to leave the game after getting hit in the eye with an errant foul tip off her bat in the bottom of the third inning.

“We were thin already with Gina Mondo being out. Then when Purtzer went down, we just couldn’t recover,” Spartans head coach Jaquie Joseph said.

MSU committed seven errors in the game, including four alone in the fourth inning that led to six runs for the Boilermakers, stretching the Purdue lead to 10-0. The Spartans still struggled to even get a hit, only mustering two singles before the fifth inning.

Purdue would score two more runs before the game was stopped in the fifth, winning the game 12-0.

“We couldn’t play catch today, and our bats weren’t alive today,” senior catcher Kara Weigle said.

The nightcap didn’t fair much better for the home team, as Purdue again got off to a hot start with a home run in the opening inning, this time a three-run shot by Jenna Alexander. The Boilermakers scored seven runs to start the game.

MSU struggled to catch up, eventually scoring its first run of the series on a sacrifice fly by sophomore shortstop Lindsey Hansen. The Boilermakers answered with a score of their own in the next inning, putting the Spartans out of reach.

“‘There are no excuses,’ to quote Tom Izzo,” Joseph said. “What I told our players after the game, and I really believe this, is to keep pounding the fundamentals believe in themselves and when all the pieces come together, it’ll work.

The Spartans are now 13-20 on the season and 0-7 in the Big Ten.