March 3, 2000
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - The Purdue baseball team picked up their biggest road win to date today, nailing 14 hits to beat the No. 6 Alabama Crimson Tide, 10-9. The Boilers picked up their seventh straight win with the victory in Tuscaloosa, and will look to continue their streak tomorrow as David Gassner takes the hill. Gassner is 2-0 on the season with a 3.00 ERA over the span of 15.0 innings pitched.
"It was important that we did come in here and get a win today," Purdue head coach Doug Schreiber says. "I don't think any of the pressure was on us to begin with. Coming into this series, the pressure was all on Alabama, being ranked as high as they are. What I will be interested in seeing is how our team responds to this, and if they will continue to battle hard, which I suspect that they will."
Battling at the plate for the Boilers was junior Nate Sickler. Sickler came into today's action with one homerun and a .154 batting average. The Hinkley, Minn., native smacked four hits including a homerun and two doubles. After the Boilers gave up two runs in the first inning, Sickler came up with no one on and gave the Old Gold and Black their first run of the game with a shot out of the ballpark in left center. The homerun was only the beginning for Sickler, as he would follow that with doubles in the fourth and seventh innings, crossing the plate for a Purdue run both times. Sickler reached base all five times he was at the plate, including being hit by a pitch in the fifth. Heading into the ninth, Sickler scored every time he was on base. The ninth inning would see him reach third, but he would get no further as Goldsmith for the Tide got Brad Kriner to fly out to the center fielder. Kriner lit up the line score himself, going 2-for-3 on the day, with a run scored. His biggest at bat came in the seventh when he battled back from an 0-2 count to hits a 3-2 curve ball into left field for a two-run single. Kriner would eventually score as the Boilers went ahead to stay in the four-run seventh inning.
"It felt good to get some solid hits today, because I have been struggling of late," Sickler said. "The coaches have been working with me on my mechanics and we have been working my problems out. I feel a lot better about my play now. Everyone has a slump, its just like the flu. Once you realize your in a slump, you just dedicate yourself to working through it."
The Boilers got a solid outing from Russ Morgan who picked up his first win of the season. The southpaw from New Hartford, N.Y., threw 5.0 innings of work, giving up five runs and nine hits. Morgan started to gain more command, as the Boiler's leader in strikeouts last season notched his first in the second inning against the Crimson Tide. Morgan threw back-to-back strikeouts to get out of the second, before leaving the game in the fifth with three strikeouts.
Kris Luce and David Blomberg continued their success in the field and at the plate. Luce went 2-for-4 with back-to-back doubles in the third and fifth. Blomberg had a 2-for-4 day as well, closing out the day with two singles and a walk, with a run scored.
"We did a good job with our approach at the plate," Schreiber says. "We had 14 hits and a number of them were extra-base hits, so we can't feel too bad about that. We walked six times and only struck out four, which is an important factor against this team's pitching. When they cut the lead to 10-9 and we got out of the inning, I asked the guys to focus on their respective roles, pitch by pitch, and I really think the guys did that."
Purdue and Alabama will play game two of the three game series on Saturday at 4:00 p.m., CST. With the win today, the Boilers now own the all-time series record between the two schools, 2-1. Before today, the last meeting between the two schools was in 1939, when the Boilers won 6-3.