March 18, 2000
GREENVILLE, N.C.. - The No. 17 East Carolina Pirates had won 18 consecutive home games this season coming into today's game three of their series with the Purdue Boilermakers. Following a 5-3 Purdue win, that streak is now over. The Pirates were coming off a 12-4 win over ACC power, Clemson when they opened a three game series with Purdue. With the win, Purdue moves to 9-6 on the season and ECU drops to 20-5.
"Ballard pitched well for us today," Purdue head coach Doug Schreiber said. "He didn't walk anyone and he kept them off balance very well. We should have been able to go a little further but with the lead that we had we opted to take him out and leave the rest of the game up to our closers."
The Boilers opened up their first two games of the three game series in promising fashion, with junior Nate Sickler taking the ball deep in his first at bat both games. With Purdue losing both games of the twin bill, the early inning heroics seemed to be a sign of bad things to come. After Purdue went 1-2-3 with three strikeouts to open the game, the Pirates leadoff hitter James Molinari stepped to the plate. On the second pitch to the Pirates' center fielder, Molinari went deep to right field. The hex of the opening home run worked against the Pirates this time, as the Boilers took the final game of the series. The Pirates failed to score another run following the opening home run until the seventh inning when they scored two runs in a late game rally. However, with the strong arm of closer Andy Helmer on the hill, Purdue finished off the Pirates with a 5-3 win.
"Our offense was more productive today," Schreiber said. "We had a couple hit and runs that worked and we added a couple home runs for some good offensive output. Once we got a lead we were able to run a little bit on them, and that helped us out."
Purdue started its No. 4 pitcher in the rotation, Jeremy Ballard. The senior came out strong following the opening home run to Molinari. Ballard closed out the first, and then worked into the seventh giving up only five more hits. Ballard opened the seventh with a 5-1 lead, and got the first two batters he faced to fly out. Erik Bakich opened with the first hit of the inning for the Pirates. With a runner on first, Bryant Ward hit a fly ball down the right field line, just past the diving glove of right fielder Daniel Underwood. Ballard was then pulled in favor of Ben Kaebisch, who came in and struggled with the top of the Pirates' order. Kaebisch gave up back-to-back singles which scored Ward from third. With men on first and third, pitching coach Gary Adcock headed to the hill to put an end to the Pirates' rally. Senior-closer Andy Helmer entered the game with two outs in the seventh, and worked through the eighth and ninth to earn his fourth save of the season. Helmer gave up only one hit in the 2.1 innings of work.
The Boilermakers' offense began to be more aggressive, as the squad relied less on the long ball and began moving runners around. The Boilers opened up their scoring in the third inning, as junior Nate Sickler led off with his fourth home in as many games. His sixth long ball of the season tied the game at one, before Purdue would strike again in the fifth. Nick McIntyre led off the inning with a single. He advanced to second off a sacrifice bunt by Mike Duursma. After Nate Sickler struck out for the second out of the inning, David Blomberg hit a single to score McIntyre. After Blomberg stole second, Erik Frei lined a single to score Blomberg. Purdue scored again in the sixth, as Daryl Hallada led off with his fifth home run of the year, and again in the seventh, as Nick McIntyre crossed the plate for the second time on the day. McIntyre led off with a double, and was eventually knocked in by Sickler. The five runs was enough for Purdue to hand the Pirates their first home loss of the season, and only their fifth loss overall.
Leading the way for the Old Gold and Black at the plate was Sickler, Blomberg, Frei and McIntyre. McIntyre had the Boilers' top performance. Going 2-for-3 with two runs scored. Sickler and Blomberg both went 2-for-5 with a run scored. Frei went 2-for-4 on the day.
Purdue opens their home season on Wednesday, March 22 against the Valparaiso Crusaders. The game's first pitch is scheduled for 3:00 p.m.