April 29, 2001
The Purdue baseball team split its weekend series with the Indiana Hoosiers, dropping a 14-7 decision on Sunday. Purdue is now 26-19 overall, 16-6 in the Big Ten and in second place behind Ohio State, who swept Minnesota this past weekend.
The Purdue offense did collect 18 hits, as eight of the nine batters in the Boilermaker starting lineup had at least two hits. Kris Luce led the way with a 3-for-4 performance including a solo home run in the fifth inning. Dave Blomberg was 3-for-5 while Nick McIntyre also added a pair of RBI.
Daniel Underwood led off the game with a single to right field. Blomberg moved him over to second on a sacrifice bunt. Indiana got one run in their half of the first as Nick Evans, scored from second on an Eric Blakeley single. Blakeley scored after Gibran Hamdan was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. Mark Calkins drove in two more runs. O'Neil did strike out one batter before forcing a line out to second to end the inning.
Kris Luce got a single for the Boilermakers' first hit of the second inning. John Gusich then doubled all the way to the center field wall, advancing Luce over to third. After Brad Kriner lined out to short, Mike Duursma walked to load the bases, but Underwood grounded into a fielder's choice to end the inning. Indiana added another run as Blake St. Clair hit a sacrifice fly to center field to score Haegele. The Hoosiers left two runners on base after O'Neil got Hamden to fly out to center field.
David Harrell walked with two outs in the third. Nate Sickler added a single through the left side to put two runners on. Luce then singled to the third baseman, who managed to stop the ball from going down the left field line, but all runners were safe, loading the bases for John Gusich. For the second consecutive inning, the Boilermakers loaded the bases and ended the inning by grounding out to second on a fielder's choice.
O'Neil added his second strikeout of the game at the start of the third inning, as the Hoosiers went 1-2-3 in the third. The remaining two batters were put out on a fly ball caught by Luce in foul territory followed by a fly out to left.
Indiana replaced starter Matt Rice with Ryan Smith to start the fourth inning. Kriner led off the inning with a sharp single to center field. After Duursma grounded out to short, Kriner advanced to second. He advanced to third on a wild pitch then scored on Underwood's second single of the game, putting the Boilermakers on the board. With Blomberg up, Underwood advanced on another wild pitch, putting himself in scoring position with one out. Blomberg then blasted his second triple of year to left center field, driving in Underwood, and narrowing Indiana's lead to 5-2. Blomberg scored easily on a McIntyre ground out to second. Harrell walked, still with two outs, putting a runner on for Sickler, who grounded out into a fielder's choice. Despite that, Purdue put themselves back in the contest, trailing just 5-3 after three and a half innings. The Hoosiers added just a hit in the bottom of the fourth, while O'Neil added another strikeout and keeping Indiana scoreless in the inning.
Chris Behrens relieved Smith at pitcher for the Hoosiers to start the fifth. Luce then hit his fourth home run of the year and his third hit of the game in three at-bats. Indiana's 5-0 lead suddenly dwindled to 5-4. Gusich followed Luce with his second hit of the game, a single to center field. Kriner added his second hit of the game as well, advancing Gusich over to second. Indiana then inserted its fourth pitcher into the lineup, replacing Behrens with Zach Otte after Behrens allowed three hits to all three batters he faced. Duursma singled, extending his hit streak to 11 games, loading the bases with no outs. Underwood struck out swinging while Blomberg grounded out into a double play, but the Boilermakers moved themselves to within one run with four and a half innings left to play.
O'Neil allowed two baserunners in the bottom of the fifth, a hit by pitch and a single, then was relieved by southpaw Adam Green. O'Neil finished with four innings pitched, six earned runs, nine hits and three strikeouts. Green threw out batter Mark Calkins on a sacrifice bunt, but the two baserunners advanced to second and third. He got Josh Romero to ground out to third, holding the runners, giving the Hoosiers two outs in the inning. Joe Kemp singled to center field, scoring a run, which was credited to O'Neil. Green was able to get Haegele to fly out to McIntyre in foul right territory, getting the Boilermakers out of the fifth.
In the sixth, after McIntyre flied out to center, Harrell ripped a single to left field, his third time on base in four plate appearances on the day. Sickler reached base on a fielders' choice, as Harrell was put out at second. Luce reached base in his fourth attempt, thanks to a throwing error by the third baseman. Sickler advanced to third, but Gusich flied out to center to end the inning.
Green yielded a pair of singles in the bottom of the sixth, putting runners on the corners. He forced a line out to Duursma at short before Blakeley stole second. Harrell had second thoughts about throwing out Blakeley, deciding not to attempt, preventing a possible run scoring from third. Spanos was walked, loading the bases. Hamdan then drove in two runs on a base hit to center. Luke Howard replaced Green on the mound, but gave up a single, a sacrifice fly, a triple and another single which increased Indiana's lead to 13-4 after six innings. Billy Lester came on to replace Howard, and struck out Blakeley to end the inning.
Kriner led off the seventh, reaching base on a throwing error by the third baseman. It was Kriner's third on-base appearance in his last three attempts. Duursma doubled to the left field wall, scoring Kriner from first, Purdue's fifth run of the day. Duursma advanced to third on a balk, then scored on a single by Blomberg. Blomberg then stole his 14th base of the season, advancing to second. He scored on the next pitch as McIntyre shot a single off the pitcher's leg into right field. Harrell singled through the left side to advance McIntyre to second. Luce walked to load the bases for the third time in the game for Purdue. Gusich struck out looking to end the inning, but not before the Boilermakers added three runs on four hits.
Lester struck out the second batter he faced to start the bottom of the seventh. He gave up a home run to Spanos, but struck out the next batter and forced a ground out to Luce at first. Daniel Hernandez replaced Lester entering the eighth inning. Gusich scooped up a sharply hit ball at him to convert a double play in the bottom of the eighth. Hernandez got the final batter to line out to Luce at first.
Blomberg hit a ball at the third baseman, and hustled to first for an infield single, leading off the ninth. Pitcher Quinn Moore forced McIntyre to ground out into a double play, then caught Harrell looking to end the game.
The Boilermakers return to action on Saturday with a doubleheader at Indiana State on Saturday. They return home next Sunday to face the Sycamores in a home-and-home series.
NOTES - Duursma led the team over the weekend with a 6-for-13 (.462) performace with two doubles and three RBI ... Luce was 5-for-13 (.385) with a homer and two RBI ... Gusich was 5-for-14 (.357) with a double ... Kriner and Blomberg led the team with three runs scored over the weekend.