Anna Moore carried her most invaluable piece of equipment inside Purdue softball’s Bittinger Stadium and plugged it into the wall.
The gear in the Cathedral grad’s equipment bag helped her to the most impressive freshman season in Boilermaker history. That in-line scooter, though, made a full life off the diamond possible, too.
While many freshmen spend their first year deciding what to study, Moore jumped right into engineering. As if academic rigors and athletic demands were not enough, she also is the softball team’s lone sorority member.
In both cases she followed family tradition. It would not be hyperbole to say Moore was born to be a Boilermaker. In less than one season, she’s already built a legacy, and her presence in the middle of the infield and the middle of the lineup makes Purdue a formidable No. 10 seed in this week’s Big Ten Tournament in Maryland.
“The moment she committed here, we knew that that she was coming to lead this team,” Purdue coach Maggie Frezzotti said. “That Purdue means a lot to her, and she had the talent, she had the preparation, she had the work ethic and she had that extra love for Purdue that we knew was gonna push her forward.”
How Purdue softball’s Anne Moore grew her prodigious power
Moore felt out of place at her first Boiler softball camp. She was running late. Compared to the other girls in their fancy travel ball uniforms, her Purdue T-shirt felt inadequate.
Frezzotti remembers the short, skinny girl wearing a face mask and slap-hitting at the plate. Moore also made an impression with her skills. A relationship began which carried up through when Frezzotti became the head coach.
Moore changed along the way, too. In eighth grade, she was diagnosed with celiac disease. When she cut gluten out of her diet, her growth took off. When she took her weight training seriously in high school, it took off again.
During her junior year at Cathedral, Moore emerged as a power hitter. She coils back in a left-handed stance, keeping her long whip-like swing on plane with the ball as long as possible. That young slap-hitter now drives the ball to all fields with authority.
Moore took a while to get going in the offseason. She took a bad-hop ball to the face in practice that broke her nose. She missed a couple of weeks before testing out of concussion protocol. Then she got sick. Christmas break could not come soon enough.
“I didn’t have to worry about school,” Moore said. “I just had to eat, sleep, and train — which is pretty much what I did. I hit, I think, every day of break. I made sure I got in all my lifts, and I was really focused on eating the right things, too.”
And the result?
“She came back and we were like, ‘Holy smokes,’” Frezzotti said.
The Big Ten honored Moore as Freshman of the Week three times during the regular season. Forget freshman records, though. Moore’s 61 RBIs are a team record for any class. Her 14 home runs are tied for the single-season team record.
Her 1.280 OPS ranks second only to Moriah Polar, who is conducting her own assault on Purdue’s offensive record books. Moore opened the season batting third and instantly brought an explosive element to the middle of the lineup.
First baseman Haley Painter, whose 12 home runs rank second on the squad, said the freshman takes veteran at-bats. At this point, that class designation doesn’t really apply.
“Me and her have had conversations about that because she’s talked about, ‘Well, I’m just a freshman,‘” Painter said. “It’s like, ‘Yes, but you’re not. The way you’re carrying yourself, you’re not just a freshman, you’re acting, like a vet. So, carry yourself like a vet and have conversations like that, because people do look up to you even though you are just a freshman.’”
Why Purdue softball’s Anna Moore was born a Boilermaker
Painter enrolled at the start of the semester after playing at Fresno State and Nevada. Moore’s freshman roommate, Bella Douglas, came from Howell, Utah. Like many of their teammates, they learned and embraced the school’s culture and rivalries after arriving.
Moore showed up with the competitive equity of a life spent rooting for the Boilermakers. If the rest of the team did not know it by mid-April, they knew it by the time they left Bloomington after a three-game series against IU.
Moore’s intensity showed up in the way she tried to inspire and motivate the rest of the team. It showed up in her dissatisfaction after a three-game sweep. Her solo home run in Game 2 accounted for half of the team’s offense for the whole weekend.
“It was, like, radiating off of her how much pride she had, and it was very, very inspirational,” Painter said. “It was awesome, honestly, because that’s something you can’t teach. When you have such a drive and heart and want and passion, you can’t teach that.
“It was just awesome seeing a freshman have that. Like, ‘No, we have to win these games. I don’t care about next year.’”
Moore’s parents, David and Nancy Moore, and her sister, Valerie, all graduated from Purdue. So did her grandfather. She grew up tailgating across from Ross-Ade Stadium at the home of family friends and going to women’s basketball games.
Recruiting becomes a bit easier when one of the state’s top players grew up shouting “IU sucks” at kickoff.
Moore made Frezzotti sweat a bit before making her commitment. She went as far as Stanford for an official visit. When the connecting flight home made her realize exactly how far away she would be, she narrowed her options to the two in-state Big Ten programs.
When first asked why she picked Purdue over IU, Moore said choosing engineering over pre-med played a big role. A few minutes later, though …
“I know I said academics, but honestly, I really couldn’t have seen myself there,” Moore said. “Just socially, all-around, I definitely fit in more at Purdue.”
What Anna Moore does when not enjoying the best freshman season in Purdue history
Moore did not ride that scooter the two-and-a-half miles from campus to Bittinger Stadium. Practice simply provided a convenient time for a recharge.
She puts in plenty of miles on it the rest of the week, though. Here’s a typical Tuesday this semester:
- Wake up at 6:40 a.m., scooter over to breakfast at the athlete dining hall.
- By 7:30 she’s in her biology lab.
- At 9:30, she’s in her engineering class for two hours.
- She hits lunch before her 12:30 math recitation.
- Then, a 1:30 physics lecture. Only after that can she head over to softball to continue to redefine what a great freshman season looks like.
Making the cut as one of Purdue’s 14,000 undergraduate engineering students takes discipline. To do it with an athlete’s practice and travel schedule takes extra dedication. Or, as Painter puts it:
“Insane,” said Painter, a public health student going into nursing. “Literally insane.”
Douglas, who plans to major in psychology, experienced the anxiety of first-semester finals and other pressures with her roommate.
“It’d be easy to just be like, ‘I’ll pick something easier,’” Douglas said of Moore. “But she takes the challenge head on, and it’s really cool to watch her do that.”
Majoring in engineering at Purdue was more than a mere career choice for Moore. It continued a family legacy. Her grandfather studied engineering there. So did her late father, who died of a heart attack during Moore’s freshman season at Cathedral.
He was an electrical engineer, but Moore plans to apply to the mechanical engineering school. A field trip to Speedway’s Dallara IndyCar Factory inspired that path – and added Indy 500 attendance to her spring responsibilities.
Family ties also helped Moore reconsider her previous decision not to pursue Greek life. When she saw other students rushing in the fall, she wondered if she was missing out on something. Her sister’s bridal party had been full of friends she made at Purdue’s Kappa Alpha Theta chapter.
When Moore found out that same women’s fraternity had spots open in the winter, she jumped in. Instead of complicating an already busy schedule, it gave her a life outside of sports.
A year ago, Purdue went into the Big Ten softball tournament as the 12 seed and pulled two upsets en route to the semifinals. It will need another underdog run this weekend to extend its season.
Moore’s bat could play a big part in a successful finish to the season, but so could the Boilermaker spirit burning inside of her for going on two decades.
“Sometimes she puts pressure on herself because she has high expectations for Purdue, and I think she’ll tell you that she would trade all of the accolades for like five more wins,” Frezzotti said.
Nathan Baird and Sam King have the best Purdue sports coverage, and sign up for IndyStar’s Boilermakers newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Anna Moore sets Purdue softball records, becomes leader as freshman