April 22, 2000
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - After losing three of four games to Iowa on April 7-9, the Boilermakers and head coach Doug Schreiber knew that they would have to do something special in the friendly confines of Lambert Field. In games one through three of their four game series with the first-place, No. 25 Fighting Illini, Purdue did just that. With their sweep of the double header between the two teams on Saturday, Purdue bettered its conference mark to 12-7 and brought their overall record to 27-14. The Illini are now 27-15 and 13-6 in the conference.
"Gassner and Ballard pitched very well today," Schreiber said "They both seemed to feed off of what Ben Quick did yesterday. Gassner had more than three pitches working while Ballard worked quickly and attacked the hitters."
The Boilermakers sent David Gassner (5-3) and Jeremy Ballard (6-2) to the hill in the twin bill. Both pitchers proved to be very effective against the offensively minded Illini, as they gave up a combined two earned runs on the day, and pitched all but 0.1 innings of the 14 inning affair, as Ben Kaebisch picked up 1/3rd of an inning to end the second game.
In Game One of the double header, the Boilermakers struck early and often. Chris Walker and David Blomberg led off with back-to-back singles and with no outs, the Illinois hurler walked the bases loaded on a 3-2 count to Erik Frei. Nate Sickler followed with a sacrifice fly to score the Boilermakers' first run. Daryl Hallada followed with his ninth double of the season to drive in two runs, and before Ryan Kvasnicka (2-2) could get out of the inning, the Boilers had scored three runs. Purdue added three more runs in the second inning, as the same trio crossed the plate for the second time in as many innings. Purdue led off the third with a single by Kris Luce, which was followed by a double by the Brad Kriner. Both runners would score on David Blomberg's single, as Purdue ran the score up to 8-2. The Old Gold and Black added an insurance run in the sixth to give David Gassner plenty of run support.
On the other side of the ball, the Big Ten's best pitching staff (3.68 ERA) again shut down the potent Illinois offense. Gassner worked through seven innings, giving up only two hits and no earned runs. The Illini managed to score two runs following an error by Kris Luce, but were kept in check by the Boilermaker southpaw. Gassner shut the Illini down in order in five of the seven innings and had a no-hitter through five innings before giving up a lead off double to Chris Basak.
The offensive numbers for Purdue were quite different from the Illini, as Purdue notched 13 hits in the seven-run win. Blomberg and Hallada both went 3-for-4, as Hallada added four RBI and Blomberg had two RBI and two runs scored. Chris Walker and Daniel Underwood both added two hits apiece in the Boilermakers' line score.
Game Two of the twin bill saw much of the same results, as Jeremy Ballard (6-2, 3.20 ERA) worked through 6.2 innings to notch his team-leading sixth win. Ballard struck out two, giving up seven hits on the day. As Purdue opened the second game of the day, it seemed evident that the Illini were going to try to put pressure on the Boilers early. Basak led off the game with a single, and would come around to score later in the inning. The Boilers matched the Illini by getting a run of their own in the bottom of the first, making the most out of an error by the Illinois-third baseman. With the game knotted at one, both pitchers managed to work well into the third. With David Blomberg leading off the third inning, a costly walk was given up by the Illinois hurler, Mitch Walk. Before the inning was over, Purdue would bat around and score five runs to go ahead for good. Purdue notched four hits in the inning, as well as two walks, an Illini error and a hit batsman. The Boilers again added an additional run in the sixth to provide their starter with an insurance run.
"Getting that run back in the bottom of the first showed then that we were going to come out fighting," Schreiber said. "For us to score five runs in the third without really hitting the ball hard had to be deflating for them."
Ballard worked into the seventh inning, surrendering only one more run on a solo shot over the left field wall by Craig Marquie. In the seventh inning, Ballard gave up a single to Marquie, before Purdue turned a 6-4-3 double play to put them one out away from the win. A ground ball to third baseman Daryl Hallada could have ended it, but a wayward throw put Jeff Gertz on first, and gave the Illini life. After walking Basak, Ballard was pulled in favor of left-hander Ben Kaebisch. Kaebisch worked to a 3-2 count against Brady Ballard before losing the hitter and loading the bases. With the sacks juiced, D.J. Svihlik (.338, 26 RBI) stepped to the plate. The Illinois-second baseman hit a shot to left center field, and with the runners off it looked as if Illinois would rally to score three runs and run the score to 7-5. With the ball drifting towards the fence in deep center field, Purdue center fielder Nate Sickler made a diving stab to end the game and give Purdue its 12th conference win.
"Tomorrow, we need to stay aggressive and play within ourselves," Schreiber added. "I'll challenge them and hopefully we can get it done."
Purdue will complete the series with Illinois on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. Purdue will send Russ Morgan (4-4) to the hill while Illinois will test Andy Dickinson (5-1).