April 25, 2000
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Purdue baseball team received 14 votes in the latest ESPN Baseball Weekly/Coaches Poll. They proved that they were deserving of those votes when the scored 27 runs to defeat the IUPUI Jaguars, 27-5. Purdue put together 25 hits in the ballgame, sending fifteen hitters to the plate. The Boilers better their season mark to 29-14 and are now 16-7 against non-conference opponents.
"After the way we reacted last week, we wanted to come out and follow up this weekend with a strong performance," Purdue head coach Doug Schreiber said. "We jumped on them right away and that was good. We're learning, and it's nice to know that we've learned from what we have done in the past."
Purdue stared the day with Sean O'Neil on the hill. The freshman was coming off a strong performance in a starting role at Illinois State, where he got his first win of the season in an 8-2, rain-shortened victory. The Oak Park, Ill., native struck out nine in his last outing and pitched well again today in his pre-determined, three-inning outing. O'Neil wrapped up the win after going three full and giving up no runs on two hits. The Boilermakers worked the great majority of their relief staff in the game, sending six different pitchers to the hill in the nine-inning affair. O'Neil was followed by Travis Dorsch (2.0 IP, 3 hits, 1 run), Carlos Gomez (1.0 IP, 1 hit, 1 run), Jim Davies (1.0 IP, 4 hits, 1 earned run), Matt Skripsky (1.0, 1 hit 0 runs) and closed things out with Ben Kaebisch (1.0 IP, 0 runs, 0 hits). The Jaguars only managed to score three earned runs along with two unearned runs on the Big Ten's best pitching staff. The combined effort lowered the Boilermakers' ERA to 3.62 on the season, while O'Neil moves to 2-0 with a 3.00 ERA.
"We played good defense and our pitchers threw well enough," Schreiber said. "Our hitters did an excellent job of staying focused. They went up there and they didn't give up any at-bats. "
With the Boilermakers receiving recent national attention following a sweep of No. 25 Illinois, Purdue was focused on not losing their discipline in a mid-week game. With the Old Gold and Black swinging the bat well of late, IUPUI would be a test for Purdue to stay focused. With this in mind, Chris Walker led off the game with a double. Purdue followed that with a hit and two walks to eventually score three runs and jump on top of the Jaguars early. The Boilers would be held scoreless in the second inning, which would mark one of only two innings in the ballgame in which they would not score. With Erik Frei leading off the third inning, the bats broke loose. Frei led off with a walk before five consecutive Boilermaker-base hits. In the inning, David Blomberg and Nate Sickler both notched doubles as Purdue batted around getting five batters second cracks at the plate in the same inning. Frei made the most of his second trip to the dish, as he ripped a triple to run the score to 11-0. Before the inning was over, Daniel Underwood would add a double and Purdue would end up with 10 runs on nine hits. The Boilermakers batted around again in the fourth inning as Purdue saw the plate 25 times over the span of two innings. Purdue added seven more runs in the fourth to run the score up to 19-1. The onslaught continued into the eighth, as Purdue scored three more runs and then two more in both the seventh and eighth innings to run the final tally to 27. IUPUI managed to scatter 11 hits and five runs, three of which were earned, in the 27-5 blowout.
In the win, twelve different Boilers got at least one hit with nine different players reaching the multi-hit category. A big part of the reason for Purdue's offensive onslaught was the play of the bench players. Michael Correll and Nick McIntyre came off the bench for Nate Sickler and Daniel Underwood, respectively, and had four hits between them. Correll ended the day going 2-for-4 with two RBI and two runs scored while McIntyre went 2-for-3 with two RBI and two runs scored. John Badylak saw the plate as well, as the sophomore from West Lafayette, Ind., had two hits and three RBI on the afternoon. Brandon Buck completed the crew as the junior got the start today at catcher and made the most out of the opportunity, going 2-for-5 with two RBI and two runs. Chris Walker and Erik Frei were the hi-light for the starters, as the duo combined for seven hits in 12 at-bats. Frei went 4-for-6 with three RBI and Walker added a 3-for-6 performance with an RBI and three runs scored. Walker
"It was very nice to see the bench players perform well today," Schreiber added. "Sometimes with that kind of a lead, it's easy to lose focus. They didn't do that. They stayed in the game and stayed focused. That was a real highlight of the game."
With the Boilers 27 runs on 25 hits, the 2000 squad matches the third highest run output of any team in the 112-year history of Purdue baseball, as well as the third largest margin of victory. The leader in both of those categories came in 1908 when the Boilermakers defeated Butler by a final score of 37-0. The 1908 squad went 10-3 on the season.