May 5, 2001
The Purdue baseball team grabbed its 20th road win of the season in a 9-7 victory at Indiana State. The Boilermakers scattered 18 hits over nine innings while Ben Quick picked up his team-leading sixth win of the season. Billy Lester picked up his third save.
In the first inning, the Boilermakers put one runner on base as Dave Blomberg reached base on a throwing error by the first baseman. In the bottom half of the inning, Quick retired the side in the first inning, striking out the final batter.
With one out in the second, Nate Sickler walked in his first plate appearance of the day. Kris Luce jacked a double to the left field corner, advancing Sickler over to third. Sickler scored on a passed ball as Luce advanced to third. Luce scored when John Gusich grounded out to second. Gusich still got the RBI as the Boilermakers took a 2-0 lead. Quick struck out two more batters in the second inning, but also gave up a home run to Tommy Jeffers. After two full innings, the Boilermakers led 2-1.
Mike Duursma continued his late season offensive surge, looping a single to center field to lead off the third inning. He advanced to second after Underwood grounded out to first base. McIntyre dropped a double down the left field line, scoring Duursma from second. It was his team-leading 64th hit of the year, his 15th double of the year, as Purdue took a 3-1 lead. Harrell hit a sharp single to center field to score McIntyre from second. The Boilermakers got two runs and three hits in the top of the third, leading 4-1.
After giving up a leadoff single, Quick caught a line drive from Caleb Reger, throwing over to first to convert the double play. He then struck out his fourth batter of the day to end the inning.
Luce led off the fourth inning with a base hit through the right side. Kriner laid down a perfect bunt at the third baseman, who bobbled it, committing the second error of the game for the Sycamores. Luce advanced to second. Underwood reached base for the first time of the day on an infield single, loading the bases, but Boilermakers did not add any runs to the scoreboard.
Quick got the first two batters of his fourth inning of work to fly out, then after giving up a double, got his last batter looking for his fifth strikeout of the game.
McIntyre was hit by a pitch to lead off the fifth, the third consecutive inning that the leadoff hitter got on base. Harrell doubled to left field, advancing McIntyre to third with no outs. McIntyre then scored on a wild pitch, increasing Purdue's lead to 5-1, while Harrell advanced to third on the wild pitch. Gusich walked to put runners on the corners. Kriner looped a single to center field, scoring Harrell and moving Gusich to second. It was Kriner's second time on base in three appearances. The Boilermakers added two runs in the fifth, and led 6-1 after four and a half innings.
Indiana State got two runs back as a double by John Purdom scored a runner from first, then Purdom later scored from third off a Reger base hit to right, trimming Purdue's lead to 6-3. Reger advanced on a sacrifice bunt, then scored on an Augie Casson double. Purdue still led 6-4 after five innings.
Underwood led off the sixth with a walk, the fourth consecutive inning the Boilermakers got the leadoff man on base. After Blomberg grounded out into a double play, McIntyre singled to left field, his third consecutive time on base and his second hit of the game. Harrell then reached on a fielding error by the third baseman. McIntyre moved over to second. Sickler struck out to end the inning.
Quick added his sixth strikeout of the game to lead off the sixth. After giving up a walk and another base hit, Quick struck out John Purdom, his seventh victim of the day, then caught Chris Hall looking, giving him a total of eight.
Leading off the seventh, Luce drilled his third hit of the game, a single to right field. Gusich grounded out to the first baseman on a high-bouncer, as Luce was able to move into scoring position at second. Kriner then, after a lengthy at-bat, doing a nice job to keep himself alive in the count, singled to center field, scoring Luce from second. It marked Kriner's third hit of the game. Duursma then added his second hit of the game, a base hit through the right side as Kriner advanced to second. Underwood grounded out into a double play to end the inning, but the Boilermakers added on run in their half of the seventh, leading 7-4.
Purdue gave up two runs on two hits in the seventh. Reger led off with a single for the Sycamores. Quick was able to get a Michael Miller to fly out to center, then the Boilermakers nearly turned a double play to end the inning, forcing out Reger at second, but Casson was able to beat the throw out at first. Jason Frome homered to center to narrow Purdue's lead to 7-6.
Blomberg led off the eighth with a single to center field, the sixth consecutive inning that the leadoff batter got on base. McIntyre added his third hit of the game, as Blomberg moved over to second, with no one out. Harrell grounded out into a double play. Sickler took a closer step to standing atop a Purdue record, hitting his 20th double of the season, tying himself for first place on the school's all-time list, while also scoring Blomberg from third. Luce doubled, his fourth hit of the game as well as his second double of the game, scoring Ben Kaebisch, who pinch-ran for Sickler, from second. Luce advanced to third on a wild pitch. After seven and a half innings, the Boilermakers led 9-6.
Freshman Billy Lester came on to relieve Ben Quick to start the eighth inning. Quick finished with seven innings, nine hits, six runs, eight strikeouts and just two walks. Lester gave up two hits and a run, but was able to get three more outs, and keep Purdue in the lead at 9-7, heading into the ninth.
Kriner led off the ninth with a base hit, making it all nine innings that the Boilermakers got the leadoff man on base. It was also Kriner's fourth hit of the game, a season-best for the Indianapolis native. Duursma had a sacrifice bunt to move Kriner to second. Blomberg got on base on a fielding error by the second baseman, the fourth Sycamore error on the day, as Kriner moved to third. McIntyre struck out to end the inning, as the Boilermakers still led 9-7 heading into the last of the ninth.
Casson led off the ninth, reaching first on a Lester fielding error, before Frome flied out to Kriner if foul left territory. Lester got Chad Zaucha, the Sycamores leading hitter, to fly out to center for the second out of the inning. Lester then struck out Jeffers to end the game.
NOTES - The four hits by Luce and Kriner are season-highs for both men ... With his eight strikeouts, Quick now has 72 for the season, which is currently the fifth-best season total in school history ... Ben Kaebisch, who normally appears as a lefty out of the bullpen, entered the game as a pinch-runner after Nate Sickler doubled. Kaebisch scored from second, the first run scored of his career for the Colgate, Wis., native ... With his next double, Sickler will hold the school record for doubles in a season ... with five doubles in the game, the Boilermakers pushed their season total to 100.