May 17, 2001
The Purdue baseball team concluded play at the 2001 Big Ten Tournament with a 10-2 loss Thursday night in Columbus. The Boilermakers will return home and await on a possible NCAA Regional bid, the school's first since 1987. Bids will be announced by the NCAA on Monday afternoon.
Chadd Blasko suffered the loss, giving up five earned runs, and an additional three unearned runs. He pitched 6.1 innings, allowing eight hits while striking out seven and walking just one. Dave Gassner came on to finish the ball game, pitched the final 1.2 innings and striking out two.
Purdue scored the first run of the night as David Harrell drilled his sixth homer of the season to right center. Blasko retired the first seven batters he faced. Despite giving up a triple to Bill LaRosa in the third, he struck out Blake Rutkowski swinging before getting Scott Tousa to fly to center, ending the inning.
Purdue held a 1-0 lead until the bottom of the fifth inning, where the Wolverines got five runs. They sent nine batters to the plate in the fifth, getting five runs on four hits and two Boilermaker errors. Just two of those five were earned.
Purdue got one run in the top of the seventh as Nate Sickler, who walked to lead off the inning, scored on a Mike Duursma sacrifice fly.
Michigan answered with three more runs in the bottom the seventh after Tousa hit a two-run homer, then Mike Sokol scored from second on a Brock Koman double. Blasko was relieved after Koman's double, as Gassner was inserted into the game. Gassner got Jake Fox to fly to center, then struck out Nate Wright after Jordan Cantalamessa singled. Michigan added two more runs in its half of the eighth as Touba hit a two-run homer, his second of the game.
Purdue added one more hit in the eighth, one of historical significance. After David Harrell walked with one out, he advanced to third on a Sickler double to left field. It was Sickler's 21st of the season, a new Purdue single-season record, surpassing the previous school record held jointly by Jermaine Allensworth (1992) and Daryl Hallada (1999).
After finishing in second place in the Big Ten, the Boilermakers await to see if their season will be continued as the NCAA will announce its regional bids on Monday.