April 21, 2001
After evening their series with Illinois, Purdue dominated the Illini in a 16-2 victory thanks to a 16-hit performance by the offense and another stellar pitching performance by Dave Gassner. Klink had the best game of his young career, going 3-for-3 while Daniel Underwood, Dave Blomberg, Nick McIntyre, John Gusich and Mike Duursma each added two hits for the Boilermakers. For Gassner, it was his fourth complete game in his last five outings. They added four home runs, the most hit in a game this season.
The Boilermakers wasted little time putting numbers up on the scoreboard. Blomberg walked to get on base, followed by McIntyre, who reached base on an error for the third time of the series, a fielding error by the second baseman. David Harrell then crushed his fifth home run of the year to give the Boilermakers a 3-0 lead.
After Gassner retired the side in the first, Gusich led off the second inning with a towering shot of his own, to left field, his third home run of the year. Klink followed in the next at-bat with a single to center field. After Duursma lined into a double play, Underwood jacked a two-run homer to center field. Three of the first four hits for the Boilermakers were home runs. It was Underwood's second home run of the year. Blomberg then doubled to right field with two outs, extending his hit streak to 16 games and marking the last batter starting pitcher Josh Gold would face. Gold lasted just an inning and two-thirds, giving up five hits and five runs, three of them earned. He was relieved by Casey Haun, who on his first pitch, gave up a base hit to Nick McIntyre, which drove in Blomberg, building Purdue's lead to 6-0. The Boilermakers added three runs on five hits in the second.
Gassner retired the first five batters he faced, striking out three of those five before Luke Simmons was questionably hit by a pitch. He was the Illini first base runner of the night. Vince DeMaria struck out, Gassner's fourth strike out among the first seven batters he faced before he struck out Kris Kopriva to start the third inning, his fifth strikeout of the first eight batters he faced. He didn't allow a hit until he faced pinch-hitter Brian Raymond with one out in the third, a single. Gassner struck out Brady Ballard for the second time in the game, his sixth of the game. He forced a groundout to second to end the inning. He gave up a leadoff single in the fourth, but struck out the final two batters to give him eight strikeouts over his first four innings pitched.
In the third inning, Kris Luce doubled down the right field line with two outs, his eighth double of the season. Luce scored as Gusich drove in his second run of the game on a single to center field. Klink then picked up the first multi-hit game of his career with a base hit to center field. Duursma reached base on a fielding error by the shortstop, loading the bases for Underwood, who then cranked his second home run of the game for his first career grand slam. With two outs in the third inning, the Boilermakers had scored 11 runs on 10 hits. Blomberg doubled for the second consecutive at-bat, knocking pitcher Haun from the game after pitching one inning, giving up six hits and six runs, only of them them earned. He faced nine batters. He was replaced by Craig Lechowicz, who pitched the remainder of the game. Lechowicz' first batter, McIntyre, added his second base hit in consecutive innings, driving in Blomberg, increasing the lead to 12-0. The Boilermakers sent 10 batters to the plate in the third, scoring six runs on six hits.
After going scoreless in their half of the fourth inning, Klink added his third hit of the game, a double to right field and second double in as many games. Klink scored his second run of the game as Duursma hit his second double of the series, increasing Purdue's lead to 13-0. Duursma advanced to third as Underwood grounded out for the first out of the inning. Duursma then scored on a Blomberg sacrifice fly to center field. Purdue led 14-0 after four and a half innings.
Blomberg made a nice play to throw out DiMaria on a groundout to second, making the first out of the Illinois fifth. Gassner forced a fly out to right and struck out Ballard looking, his third strikeout of Ballard and ninth of the game, to end the fifth.
In addition to the outstanding pitching performance, Gassner furthered etched his name into the Purdue record books, now tied for fifth in career strikeouts (198) with Mike Hedman (1994-97) and sixth-place in career innings pitched (256.1) .
Illinois got a double in the sixth, after Gassner threw out Maugher on a ground out. Gassner got Rob Fischer to ground out to second then forced Trevor Frederickson, who replaced Patrick Arlis at catcher, to fly out to left field, keeping his shutout intact after six innings.
Mitch Koester led off the seventh with a walk, entering the game as a pinch-hitter in place for Gusich. Gusich finished the game 2-for-3 with two runs scored and two RBI. Duursma added his third double of the weekend, advancing Koester to third, with just one out. Koester scored after Underwood reached base on a fielding error by the second baseman. John Badylak pinch-hit for Blomberg, and hit an infield single to score Duursma, upping Purdue's lead to 16-0.
Illinois got a pair of runs before Gassner closed the door on the Illini, picking up his second consecutive win over the Illni and upping his 2001 record to 4-4. In last year's contest, Gassner pitched a two-hit, complete game shutout.
NOTES - Underwood hit one home run all season before hitting two in tonight's contest ... Blomberg extended his hitting streak to 16 games, highest of anyone on the team this season ... McIntyre extended his season hit total to 55 and his doubles total to 13, second only to Nate Sickler (18) ... In his last two starts, Gassner has 14 innings pitched, three earned runs (1.93 ERA), 19 strikeouts and just four walks ... Underwood and McIntyre picked up their 16th multi-hit games of the season, both are tied for the team lead in that category ... Blomberg's multi-hit game was his 13th of the season while Gusich had his tenth and Duursma had his eighth ... In addition to a career-best 3-for-3 outing, it also marked the first multi-hit game of Klink's career ... the 16 runs scored is the ninth game of the season Purdue has scored in double-digits, their second 16-run output in its last four games and fourth double-digit output in conference games ... Underwood, Blomberg and McIntyre each had at-bats in the first three innings.