A Crazy Walk Off Win For Purdue Baseball

Saturday was a crazy day at Alexander Field. To be honest the bats just were not hitting for the Boilermakers. They only had six hits headed into the bottom of the ninth inning down four runs. If you left the game I would not blame you. Baseball is a funny game though and things can change quickly. Purdue stormed back to tie the game on a Miles Simington sac fly. The with the winning run on 2nd base Mason Gavre hit a three run walk off bomb. I will admit that I was in position to cover a walk off single. I could follow the players as they mobbed Mason near first base. Of course when the ball went over the fence the action would be at home plate. After so long without any baseball I will take any walk off images that I can get even if I am out of position for them.

A Beautiful Day For Baseball

On Friday I had two wide angle lenses with me for overall pictures of the stadium. With the gray skies though the wide angle lenses never came out of the bag. Saturday was a completely different story. It was an absolutely beautiful day for baseball. It was nice and warm with plenty of sunshine. I even got a little sun on my arms during the day.

Going Behind The Plate

I only was behind the plate for a couple of minutes on Saturday, but they were well worth it. I realized that this pitching motion was perfect to photograph straight on. I just loved how this image came together. Everything seemed to work out to make it interesting.

Having Multiple Amounts Of Fun

Here I had a little fun with a multi-exposure of Purdue pitcher Calvin Schapira and his pitching motion. I can’t believe it took me to the second game of the season to do this. This motion was about perfect to do this with, and I like how it turned out.

Living In The Bubble

I might spend way too much time every game trying to make a photo of Tyler Powers and his bubble blowing on the field. When nothing else is going on you try and find a moment to capture. Because I am writing this a couple of days after the game I can tell you that in my post from Sunday’s game I will have a couple of better photos of Tyler and his bubbles. Calvin Schapira the starting pitcher also likes to blow bubbles, but I haven’t been in a good position for him just yet. These are the little things in between plays that make baseball photography fun.

Ball And Bat

I would say that probably half of my ball on bat photos this year have been on the bat of Ben Nisle. There is something about his swing that I have down. I usually think that most times the ball on the bat is not the best image of the at bat. It is still fun to try and time it though. This was my favorite image from Saturday.

Wearing It

Speaking of Ben Nisle here he takes a pitch off of the elbow without even flinching. At this moment he was the winning run of the game so getting on base meant everything. In the fall of 2019 I wrote about how much fun this team was to watch in fall ball. The way that they were trying to get hit by the pitch and do whatever it took to get on base was part of that brand of baseball. Here it really set the tone for what would come after this.

More Photos From Saturday

Below are a few bonus photos from Saturday. It was my second game of the year and by far the best weather so far. Of course the walk off is what made the day so great. I still can’t believe the way that the offense erupted in the ninth.