March 31, 2000
STATE COLLEGE, Penn. - The Purdue baseball team dropped its second-consecutive conference game, as the Boilers let the game slip away in the late innings of their first road conference game this season. The Old Gold and Black drop to 3-2 in conference play, and 14-8 on the season, while the Lions jump to 4-1 in the Big Ten and 19-6 overall. With the win, the Nittany Lions are off to their best start ever in conference play.
"Mentally we simply didn't play well today," Purdue head coach Doug Schreiber said. "Before the game we asked our players to play with a lot of high energy. We needed to be mentally in the game, pitch by pitch for nine innings. You should be mentally drained when you come off the field, and we weren't. Mainly offensively we weren't ready. We had a situation with bases loaded and no outs and we didn't get the job done."
The Boilers got things started early wth a home run by Nate Sickler to start the game. With a run on the board and no outs in the first inning, it appeared as though the Boilers might have their way with the Big Ten's strikeout leader. Pete Yodis settled down though, striking out David Blomberg and got Erik Frei and Daryl Hallada both to ground out to shortstop John Richmond. Down a run, the Lions came to the plate looking to strike back against the ERA leader on the Boilermakers, Ben Quick. Quick opened the game by giving up back-to-back singles to Michael Campo and Richmond. Intending to hold the runners, Quick was called for a balk, moving both runners into scoring position. Chris Netwall followed with a single, knocking in Campo, and Chris Wright followed with a sacrifice fly to left field which scored Richmond. The ballgame stayed a 2-1 game until the fourth inning, when Quick hit Mike Hurey, and later allowed him to score. The Nittany Lions got another run in the fifth to make the game 4-1. The Boilers struck back in the sixth, scoring a run to close the gap to two runs. With a pitcher's dual seemingly developing, the Boilers finally kinked the armor of Yodis. With no one out in the eighth inning, Nate Sickler led off with a single. Yodis walked Blomberg and gave up a single to Erik Frei to load the bases. With no outs, Purdue's Daryl Hallada approached the plate looking to tie both the all-time Purdue hits record, as well as the game. The Lions countered with reliever Scott Russo. Russo struck out Hallada and managed to get Kris Luce to pop out to shortstop. The Boilers' last hope for the inning came in Nick McIntyre, who earlier in the game nailed a double to extend his hitting streak to five games. Russo got McIntyre to fly out to the centerfielder, and the Boilers best chance at breaking the game open was gone. Penn State widened the gap in the eighth inning, scoring two runs off Quick before Travis Dorsch came in in relief. Dorsch was hit hard, giving up three runs over 2/3's of an inning. Jim Davied came in in relief of Dorsch to close out the inning, but the damage was already done, as the Lions led 9-2 heading into the ninth. The lead proved insurmountable for Purdue who dropped their second conference game this season.
"I do think that our top three hitters are battling," Schreiber said. "I also think that Ben Quick pitched another great game today. He shouldn't have had to have been in the game in the eighth inning. If we score the runs that we should have, we wouldn't have had to leave Ben in the game. Quick contiunues to pitch well. Erik Frei got a couple of hits today, and I was happy with that."
Quick closed the day with a strong performance on the hill, going seven innings and giving up six runs, all of which were earned. The strong righty kept Purdue in the game, only fiving up four runs over the first seven innings to the conference's second-best hitting team (.343 BA). Leading Purdue at the plate was Nate Sickler, who ended the day going 2-for-5 with a home run. The only other player with multiple hits was Erik Frei who went 2-for-4.
The Boilermakers will resume their series with the Nittany Lions tomorrow, as the two teams meet for a douple header at Beaver Field. The first pitch is scheduled for 1:00 pm.