March 29, 2000
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Purdue baseball team beat intra-state rival Butler in a non-conference matchup on Wednesday afternoon at Lambert Field. The Boilermakers used a late game rally to move past the Bulldogs and earn Ben Kaebisch his second win of the season. Purdue moves to 14-7 (3-1 in the Big Ten) on the year, while Butler drops to 12-10.
"I feel good about the comeback win because our guys didn't quit and they kept believing," Purdue head coach Doug Schreiber said. "It is a little frustrating to have to wait that long to put runs on the board. It was key that we didn't just go up one or two runs and hope that we kept them down. We kept putting it on to the point where it was tough for Butler to come back."
Purdue opened the game with a shaky start. With freshman Sean O'Neil making his first start as a Boilermaker, the Bulldogs jumped out to an early lead. Jeff Steele led off the game with a single, and was later knocked in by Jay Swansson who hit his first home run of the 2000 season. O'Neil settled down and got through the third without surrendering another run. In the top of the fourth inning, the Boilers sent Ben Kaebisch to the mound. Kaebisch worked into the fifth pitching scoreless-baseball before he gave up three hits and two runs in the fifth. The Bulldogs extended their lead to 5-2 on Swansson's second home run of the day, in the eighth inning.
The Old Gold and Black opened up the bottom of the eighth inning down by three runs, and singled to lead off the inning. With Erik Frei on first, Daryl Hallada followed with a base hit. Kris Luce reached on an error by the short stop, scoring Frei. The Boilers continued the rally, scoring Hallada and Luce on hits from McIntyre and Underwood. Chris Walker, in to run for McIntyre, then scored on a sacrifice bunt by Brad Kriner. Nate Sickler followed with a triple to drive everyone home. Before Kris Luce struck out to end the inning, the Boilers had already scored a season-high seven runs in the inning, to take the lead for good, 9-5. Andy Helmer came in in the top of the ninth inning to shut down the Bulldogs, striking out the final batter.
"This showed our kids that we are not ever going to be out of a game," Schreiber said. "I think that this should give us a little bit of momentum going into Penn State. We need to focus on Penn State for Friday now, and hopefully our hitters will break out. We have been getting good pitching so far, and hopefully that will maintain. Our main focus heading into this weekend is that we have the confidence that we need."
The Boilers will travel to Penn State for a three game set beginning on Friday, March 31. Purdue will open with a single game, play a double header on Saturday, and end the series with a final game on Sunday. The Nittany Lions are currently tied with Purdue in the Big Ten standings at 3-1.