May 8, 2000
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The pressure of a regular season Big Ten Championship is now gone from the Boilermaker squad, and they can now look to improving on their standing heading into the conference championships with the up-coming series against Big Ten leader, Minnesota. Purdue dropped game four of the four game series with Northwestern today, 4-3, to drop to 31-20 on the season and 14-10 in the conference.
"It was a good college baseball game," Purdue head coach Doug Schreiber said. "They hit balls hard that we caught, we hit balls hard that they caught. The pitchers pitched well and there was only one walk. Russ Morgan pitched a great game, it was a tough loss for him, but that's baseball."
Purdue's No. 4 starter, Russ Morgan took the hill with a 5-5 record, facing the Northwestern-Ace, Zack Schara. Schara brought a 7-4 record and a sub-3.00 ERA into Lambert field, following a complete-game win over ranked-Notre Dame. Purdue got to the Wildcat's ace early, as the lead off hitter, Chris Walker, reached on an error to open the game. Walker was moved to second base on a single by David Blomberg before Erik Frei legged out a fielder's choice to move Walker to third. Nate Sickler followed with a hard single that scored the first run of the inning, which was followed by Daniel Underwood, who roped a single to score Sickler and Frei. With two outs, the opening error proved costly, as all three Purdue runs in the first inning were unearned. Kris Luce flew out to end the inning and leave Purdue on top, 3-0. However, Schara was left without an earned run against him. Things would stay that way as the three unearned runs Purdue scored in the opening inning would be all the Old Gold and Black could manage in the 4-3 loss. Purdue scattered an impressive 11 hits, but could not move runners across, leaving eight runners on base.
"You have to execute when you get those type of opportunities," Schreiber said. "Hallada did not get an important bunt attempt down in a crucial situation. With the way that the game was going at that point, it could have been a difference-maker."
With the Wildcat's hurler settling in and shutting down the Boilers' offense, it was up to Russ Morgan to do the same to the Purple and White. The senior from New Hartford, N.Y., stepped up to the task. Morgan was tagged for four runs after shutting down Northwestern in the first, but settled in to dominate the Northwestern order for the next seven innings. Over the span of the rest of the game, Morgan allowed only two more hits, with the help of some good defensive plays from Chris Walker and David Blomberg. Morgan went nine innings giving up only six hits, four of which came in the second inning, and gave up four runs. He struck out two while only walking one batter. Morgan lowered his ERA to 4.68.
Leading Purdue at the plate was Sickler and Frei, who both went 2-for-4 on the day. Sickler added an RBI and a run scored while Frei crossed the plate once. Walker and Blomberg added two hits apiece, both ending the afternoon 2-for-5.
"I felt like everybody cared about it, everybody was in to the game," Schreiber said. "We just got beat today. The pressure is off of us now and we can look ahead to getting ready for the conference playoffs."
Purdue will play their final home game at Lambert Field on Tuesday, at 3:00 p.m., against non-conference opponent, Chicago State.