May 17, 2000
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. - The Purdue Boilermakers' baseball team threw everything they had at the Illinois Fighting Illini in Game One of the 2000 Big Ten Playoffs, but came up on the short end of a 12-inning, five-hour and 45-minute affair, 6-2. The game was extended due to two rain delays, the second of which lasted over two hours.
The Boilers sent Ben Quick to the hill in the first inning to oppose Big Ten Pitcher-of-the-Year, Jason Anderson. Quick, a second team All-Big Ten selection, had trouble in the first inning. The Hemet Calif., native surrendered a single, followed by a walk to the opening two batters. He worked well to Andy Schutzenhofer to get ahead in the count and strike out the Illini second baseman, but surrendered another base hit before he would get out of the inning. With runners on first and third, Chris Basak stole third and catcher Erik Frei double clutched, allowing Brady Ballard to reach second on a passed ball. Following a sacrifice fly by Luke Simmons and a single by Craig Marquie the Illini had two runs on the board, one earned and one unearned. Quick got himself out of the inning, retiring Jeff Gertz on a pop up to the pitcher, but the damage had already been done.
Anderson stepped to the hill, working with a 2-0 lead. He shut down the Boilers in order in the first, and what was billed as a pitchers' dual looked to be one-sided through one inning of play. Quick settled in after a talk with pitching coach Gary Adcock, and proceeded to retire the next 12 batters in order. Heading into the rain delay, Quick had managed to retire the last 13 batters he had faced.
As Quick settled in, the Boilers heated up. Nate Sickler led off the second inning with a line drive double. Daryl Hallada moved Sickler to third with one out, and following a Daniel Underwood fielder's choice, the game was 2-1 in favor of the visiting Illini. After getting runners to second and third but failing to score a run in the fourth, Purdue put another run up in the fifth following a lead off double off the wall by freshman Brad Kriner. Kriner, the Boilers' batting average leader in 2000, came around to score off of a 4-3 Chris Walker RBI-out. Purdue managed to get runners to the corners before Sickler struck out to end the Boiler-rally.
As the rain began to pour down, it seemingly extinguished the fire that Purdue had started. When the skies cleared over two hours later, Purdue was forced to send No. 3 starter and spot reliever Jeremy Ballard to the hill to replace Quick, who had retired the last 13 batters in order. Quick had clearly settled into a groove that Mother Nature would not let him continue. Rather, Ballard came in to continue the Quick-streak, and shut down the next two batters to extend the streak to 15 hitters. That streak ended with a single by Simmons. Despite the Boilers' consecutive-outs streak ending, the dominance on the hill for Purdue continued. Ballard worked three-complete, allowing only three hits and no runs. Purdue kept the game tied with stellar pitching, as Ballard left the hill in favor of the First-Team All-Big Ten closer, Andy Helmer. Helmer continued to confuse the Illini order, with his mix of fastballs and change-ups. After an inning of work for Helmer, and the score still knotted at two apiece, Purdue sent for left-hander Ben Kaebisch. Kaebisch started things off in commanding fashion, shutting down the Illini in order in the 10th. Following an error by third baseman Brad Kriner to open the 11th, he ran Illinois off the field for his second-straight inning without surrendering a hit. With the Boilers failing to score a run for the sixth-straight inning, Kaebisch faced off against pinch-hitter Parenti with one out. Parenti slapped a perfect bunt down the third-base line that died in the grass before Kriner could make the play, and just like that, Illinois had a scoring chance. Basak followed with a single to move the runners up before Ballard popped out to Kriner. With two outs and runners on second and third, the Boilers failed to send the Illini back to their dugout without a run for the 11th-straight inning. Rather, Shutzenhofer blooped a single in front of left fielder Chris Walker to score Parenti, and as it would turn out that was all the run support the Big Ten's Pitcher-of-the-Year would need. Illinois knocked in three more runs to make the score 6-2 before closing things out in the bottom of the 12th.
While Purdue was shutting down the Illini with their Big Ten-best staff (4.09 ERA), Illinois was doing the same to Purdue with a single pitcher. Anderson came out following the lengthy rain delay to go on to pitch the complete game, 12-inning affair. The outing was the longest of the season for Anderson who improves his record to 12-3, 1-0 in the Big Ten Playoffs.
The Boilers scattered seven hits over 12-innings. Nate Sickler led the Boilers at the plate, collecting two of those hits including a lead off double in the second inning, on which he would later come around to score Purdue's first run. Kriner, Luce, Underwood, Frei and Blomberg also had a hit each on the afternoon.
Purdue will now face the winner of the No.1 Minnesota vs. No. 6 Northwestern game on Sat., at 3:30 p.m. The Boilers ended the regular season with a 3-games-to-1 series win over Minnesota, but struggled against Northwestern, losing three-of-four games at Lambert Field. The Gophers split with the Wildcats in earlier action this season. Tim Newton and Brian DeBenedictis will again call action on WAZY, 1410 AM. The game will again be broadcast on live-audio at www.purduesports.com.