April 4, 2001
The Purdue baseball team avenged an earlier loss to Ball State by picking up a 7-6 victory on the Cardinals' home field Wednesday. It marked the Boilermakers' sixth consecutive win, as they improve to 11-14 overall. Sophomore Sean O'Neil picked up his team-leading third win while Billy Lester got his first career save. The Cardinals were coming off an upset 3-2 win at No. 6 Notre Dame last night.
Daniel Underwood led off the game with a walk, then scored on a wild pitch. The Boilermaker lead lasted one out into the bottom of the first as Ball State came back with three runs.
Trailing 3-1 entering the second inning, Nate Sickler led off by reaching base when he was hit by a hitch, a team-leading fifth time this season, and was followed by a Kris Luce single, the first off pitcher Patrick Lowery for the game. John Gusich reached first on a throwing error by the shortstop. Luce advanced to second, and Sickler scored his 23rd run of the season, narrowing Ball State's lead to 3-2. Simon Klink drew the game's second walk to load the bases. Mike Duursma grounded into a double play, which still drove in Luce from third to even the score at 3-3. Ball State got one run back in the second as Brad Snyder tripled with one out, then scored on a groundout to shortstop, putting Ball State back on top 4-3. It would be their final lead of the day.
Purdue scored its remaining runs in the third inning. After Dave Blomberg and Nick McIntyre singled to lead off the third, putting runners on the corners, Ball State made a pitching change, replacing starter Lowery with Jimmy Long. Lowery lasted just two innings and was credited with four earned runs. David Harrell was the first batter Long would face, starting his fourth consecutive game in the cleanup spot, and hit a double deep to left centerfield. Two pitches later, Sickler drove Harrell in with a home run to deep left center, his third of the year, giving the Boilermakers a 7-4 lead with no outs in the third. Harrell finished the day 1-for-4 with 2 RBI while Sickler finished 2-for-4 with 2 RBI.
O'Neil produced the first scoreless inning of the game for either team, striking out the first two batters in the bottom of the third and forcing a groundout to first base to end the inning. He finished the game with five innings pitched, allowing four earned runs, four strikeouts and no walks.
Jim Davies came on to relieve Sean O'Neil in the top of the sixth inning. Davies forced a groundout to shortstop in his first at-bat of the inning. After giving up two walks, he forced a sharp groundout to Blomberg at second and a fly out to right field to end the inning. Davies allowed a run in the seventh, but struck out the final batter to keep Purdue in the lead. Luke Howard pitched the eighth, giving up one hit. He closed the eighth with a groundout to second, a putout at first and caught a line out to end the inning. Howard finished with 1.1 innings pitched, getting the first out of the ninth inning before giving up a walk. Billy Lester came on to get the final two outs of the inning for his first career save, preserving the Boilermaker victory.
Up next for Purdue is a trip to Northwestern this weekend for a four-game series. The Boilermakers look to build upon their 4-2 record in Big Ten play.
NOTES-In their last seven games, just three opposing starting pitchers have lasted more than five innings ... over that same stretch, two opposing starters have not made it past two innings pitched ... Sickler's home run was the 27th of his career, most of any active player ... Sickler also has a nine-game hitting streak, second-highest this season ... the Boilermakers are 6-0 when David Harrell is in the cleanup spot or fifth spot of the lineup ... the Boilermakers are 13-3 in their last 16 meetings against in-state opponents.