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GOLD & BLACK ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 25, ISSUE 4 79 slapping (her first two seasons) or swinging away (last year and this). She can hit for power. She can scatter extra base hits. She can bunt for hits. Once she's on base, she uses her speed as a weapon. Already this sea- son, she's had a three-steal game, which tied a Purdue single-game re- cord. At 5-foot-10 with long arms, she's able to reach pitches all over the zone, spreading them all over the field. She'll take an inside pitch over the right- field wall but just as easily can lunge and poke an opposite-field shot. After hitting a team-high 10 home runs last season, she already had blast- ed five in the team's first 10 games of 2015. That was while also hitting .469 with a team-high 15 hits. "I try not to focus on strictly one pitch," Burkhardt said. "(Hitting) coach (Jason Dorey) will still try to ask me what my favorite pitch is and I can't give him an answer because anything that looks good, I'm going to hit. I'm definitely aggressive. Sometimes too aggressive, going after the first pitch, even though it's a ball. Sometimes I get anxious and see something I like and just go for it. "But most of the time, it goes my way." She'll need help, of course. With Katy McJunkin, who hit .363 last sea- son, out this season because of aca- demics, it could come from freshmen. Catcher Kaylah Hampton impressed in the first 10 games from the clean-up spot, hitting .423 with four home runs and a team-best .571 on-base percent- age. Classmate Maya Hughes also got off to a fast start, hitting .419 in the first 10 games. And though there's still a chance for Purdue to produce high-scoring efforts, especially in non-conference early in the season, it likely won't be a consistent occurrence during Big Ten play. So that'll mean buckling down and delivering in tight spots. "If we all hit .240, .250, but we all hit .250 at the right time and we celebrate when we cross the plate, we'll be pretty good," Schuette said. "We're not going to be a team that hits .400. We're not going to be a team that hits 65 home runs. There may be a couple kids on our team that can be big-swingers that'll hit the deep ball, but otherwise the rest of us are trying to hit ground balls to advance our buddy on bases." If Purdue doesn't score frequently, it'd seem to add a heap of pressure on its pitching staff and the defense to raise its level of play. Last season, the Boilermakers were one of the worst defensive teams in the league, having the third-most er- rors among conference schools and finishing 10 of 12 teams in fielding percentage. Schuette flat-out said not making the routine play consistently enough last season cost Purdue victories. So there was more emphasis on that in the offseason, not just work- ing on techniques but also lessening the pressure by simply asking players to get an out and not worry about the flashy play. The pitchers could be the happy beneficiaries. As the team's workhorse, junior Lil- ly Fecho said a good defensive effort keeps her from stressing out on the mound. "I feel like that's always the key — you never want to put too much pres- sure on yourself," Fecho said. "That's the great thing about this game. Yeah, I'm the one who has the ball and starts the play, but there are eight people behind me who are going to make the play for me. … You always want to have full faith in your defense, and the fact that you clearly can see every- body has been working really hard and is improving, it's really exciting to see. It does take some pressure off and it's like, 'I can throw the ball anywhere and I know our defense is going to make the play.' " Fecho likely will get plenty of outs on her own, though, too. She's an in- timidating presence: A 6-foot-2 left- hander who offsets her considerable heat with a back-breaking changeup. Those tools helped her to a 21-16 mark last season with a 2.89 ERA and 196 strikeouts in 223 innings. But Schuette things she can be even better this season after a year of working closer together — Schuette is the pitching coach, too — and not just from increasing Fecho's speed on the fastball and off-speed pitches. "I really do look for her to contin- ue what she did last year but (have) a more mature game," Schuette said. "Because it's not easy, once you have that success, to continue to have that success, that's the hard part. Because other people have scouts on you, they know how to attack you, they have film. So now it's about how you han- dle that and continue that success to another notch. Lilly is a 4.0 student, a perfectionist, she loves to talk the game. She's got a lot going for her. "If she keeps that confidence, she can do some pretty cool things for Pur- due." j