May 14, 2001
The Purdue baseball team closed its 2001 regular season with a 10-shutout victory over the Iowa Hawkeyes, finishing the regular season with a record of 32-22. Sean O'Neil gets the win for the Boilermakers, improving to 6-3, pitching his second scoreless outing in Big Ten competition.
The Boilermakers scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the first before exploding for seven more in the fourth. In the first, Daniel Underwood led off with a single. He then advanced to third on a Dave Blomberg double. He scored on a Nick McIntyre groundout to second before Blomberg scored on a David Harrell base hit.
In the fourth inning, Purdue sent 12 batters to the plate, scoring seven runs on seven hits. Kris Luce led off the inning with a walk and advanced to second on a John Gusich base hit. After Brad Kriner was hit by a pitch Mike Duursma singled to score Luce and Gusich, giving Purdue a 4-0 lead. Underwood doubled to score Kriner, building the Boilermaker lead to 5-0. After Blomberg popped up to second, McIntyre added his first hit of the game, but was thrown out at first attempting to advance. With two outs, the Boilermakers put together another two-out rally, as they have done so many times before this season. Harrell was hit by a pitch following McIntyre's single, taking a shot right on the back of his batting helmet. Sickler singled through to center field to advance Harrell to second. Both runners then advanced on a wild pitch. Luce got on base for the second time of the inning with a single, scoring both runners, increasing Purdue's lead to 9-0.
Purdue's final run of the day came from Gusich, who scored from second on a Duursma triple to center field.
O'Neil pitched six scoreless innings, allowing just three hits over that span. Seniors Ben Kaebisch and Carlos Gomez, pitching their final game at Lambert Field, pitched the seventh and eighth innings, respectively. Kaebisch struck out one batter while Gomez retired all three batters he faced. Freshman Billy Lester came on to pitch the ninth inning, striking out one and retiring all three of his batters.
NOTES - Purdue clinches second place in the Big Ten, and will face Illinois in the first round of the Big Ten tournament on Wednesday afternoon at 2:30 CST ... Gusich led the Boilermakers over the weekend with a 7-for-11 (.636) performance with two RBI and three runs scored ... Underwood got on base in his first plate appearance in three of the four games, while going 6-for-15 (.400) with a double, a triple, an RBI and three runs scored over the weekend ... Kris Luce was 4-for-10 (.400) with a home run and two RBI.