March 24, 2001
Senior pitcher Dave Gassner pitched his best game of the season, sparking a 4-2 victory over Minnesota in the second game of a doubleheader. Gassner pitched a complete game, allowing nine hits and two earned runs, striking out seven and walking just two.
With Gassner shutting out Minnesota for the first four innings and allowing them hitless for the first 2.2 innings, the Boilermakers held a 3-0 lead after three innings of play. Still fired up from the first game, Purdue came out and scored two runs in the bottom of the first inning. Daniel Underwood was hit by a pitch to lead off the game. Nate Sickler doubled, then advanced to third after Underwood beat out the throw to home plate. Sickler then scored on a Nick McIntyre sacrifice fly. Purdue added one more run in the third inning as Sickler used some clever baserunning, advancing home before Nick McIntyre was caught in a run down and eventually tagged out.
Minnesota got a run back in the fifth inning on four hits, but left two runners on base. Purdue added an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth inning. Sickler got his second run of the game after walking, advancing to second on a balk, stealing third, then finally scoring on a John Gusich walk with the bases loaded.
NOTES-Sickler finished the day going 1-for-3 and scored three of the four Purdue runs ... for Gassner, it was his first win of the season ... with his seven strikeouts, Gassner now has 166 for his career, just one strikeout away from being tied for tenth place on the school's all-time list ... Sickler's double was his 10th of the year, leading the team in that category ... Purdue also fielded two double-plays ... the Boilermakers scored four runs on four hits in just 19 at-bats ... time of game one was 2 hours, 56 minutes while game two lasted 1 hour, 58 minutes.