My Ten Favorite Purdue Softball Images From This Past Season

It is hard to believe that softball season is already over. I have come to really enjoy the sport. It is fast and the emotion is always great. Purdue has an amazing stadium that they get to play in, but being a northern team it seems like they don’t always get to use it all that much.

10. The third strike yell is one of my favorite things about softball. The games usually are not low scoring so each pitch seems ultra important. That leads to some great emotion after pitches. Here is one of my favorite images from this past season after a third strike. I made it during my first game of the year. I couldn’t stay long because I had a baseball game to cover, but I was glad that I was able to get there even for a few innings.

9. In baseball being behind the catcher is a view that I really like. It doesn’t always work for softball though. Here early in the season I thought that it worked as Savanah Henley works a game.

8. I only had one game with decent light this season. Here Kiley Goff watches from the on deck circle as the pastel colors of the sunset filled the sky.

7. If you follow my sports work then you know that I love in game portraits as I call them. Part of my job I always think is to bring the viewers into the game in a way that they cannot be. This year I was with the fans in the stands so that was a bit harder to do. Here though with some long glass I was able to get right under the bill of Alex Echazarreta’s helmet while she was on the on deck circle.

6. Alex gets featured back to back on the countdown as she pitches for the Boilers. I love having some depth in my photos, and here I was able to do that. The nature of the setup of the stadium makes photos like this harder, but the lack of a video camera on the third base line this day allowed me to hop up on their platform to make the photo.

5. Here senior Sydney Bates is highlighted by the setting sun. It almost seemed like it just decided to spotlight her. I was walking out to photograph the batters from straight on in the bottom half of the inning when the great light came my way. I was lucky that I was out of the stadium to make this photo.

4. Kiley Goff is a lot of fun to photograph. She plays the game hard, and is one of the better hitters on the club. I liked this photo because of the fact that as she rounds third you can see the effort she is putting in as well as the left fielder getting ready to throw the ball in.

3. Cora Bassett is a fun player to photograph. She plays the game well, but she also plays the game with a lot of emotion. She started off this countdown with her emotion, and here she takes a look in as she rounds second base hard.

2. Rachel Becker had a heck of a season. She lead the league in batting average and set a single season record for that average at Purdue. She really was the reason this team would get going. Here she rounds third in front of her cheering team to score a run for the Boilers. The best news about this great season that she had is that Rachel will be back next year!

1. A walk off is always a great thing. When it comes in extra innings of game two of a doubleheader it is even cooler. Here the emotion is great as Becca Jones celebrates her big hit.

Bonus Photo: I only had one chance at a sunset at Bittinger Stadium this year. The sky was not there for a lot of color, but the blue hour was pretty cool. After no games during sunsets in 2020 I will take just having one this year. Maybe next year I can make that photo that is stuck in my mind.