April 11, 2003
EVANSTON, Ill. - A pitcher's duel for six innings became a hitter's game for the final three as Purdue fell to Northwestern in Evanston, Ill., on Friday 6-5. The Boilermakers dropped to 4-5 in Big Ten play and 15-13 overall, while the Wildcats improved to 4-3 in conference play and 11-10 on the season.
The teams battled through the first six innings with Northwestern leading 2-1. The teams combined for nine hits in the opening six frames. The seventh inning brought about a change in the game as the teams scored a combined eight runs, four by each team, on 12 hits, seven by the Boilermakers.
Purdue struck first, scoring a run in the second inning on a sacrifice fly by Eric Wolfe. Ben Fritz started the inning with a single to right field with one out and stole second base. John Manuel was hit by a pitch before Tyler Johnstone singled on the infield to load the bases for the Boilermakers. Wolfe's lined a shot to left field that was caught on a diving play by Northwestern's Dan Pohlman, plating Fritz from third.
The Wildcats tied the game in the fourth when Eric Roeder scored on a David Gresky single. Roeder reached on a flared double to shallow left-center that broke up a no-hitter by Purdue's Mitch Pruemer. Pruemer had retired the first nine NU batters, five by strikeout. Northwestern grabbed a one-run lead two innings later on a Jon Mikrut single, again scoring Roeder after a leadoff double.
Purdue would answer in the top of the seventh with two runs on two hits to take a 3-2 lead. Fritz drew a leadoff walk and scored two batters later when Johnstone drove a two-base hit into the right-center field gap. Wolfe singled to left to move Johnstone up 90 feet and Mitch Koester hit a flyball to left that drove home Johnstone with the lead run.
The lead was short-lived as Northwestern powered out four runs in the bottom of the seventh. A two-out hit-by-pitch started the inning for the Wildcats, who scored two runs on a Mikrut double to center field before Gresky hit his third home run of the year deep over the right field fence.
Purdue would close the gap to 6-5 with a two-run eighth inning. Consecutive singles by Daniel Underwood, Simon Klink, Fritz and Manuel scored one run and an RBI groundout by Brad Kriner plated the second to pull the Boilermakers to within one.
In the ninth inning, Andy Rempel doubled down the left field line with one out, but was left stranded on second to end the game.
Matt Skripsky (0-2) was hit with the loss for Purdue, yielding four runs on three hits in 0.2 innings of work. Starter Mitch Pruemer threw the opening six frames and allowed six hits and two runs while striking out six. Dan Konecny (3-3) got the win for the Wildcats, pitching seven innings and allowing three runs. Jon Mikrut tossed the final two innings for his third save of the season.
The Boilermakers had three players with two hits in the game as Ben Fritz and Tyler Johnstone each had 2-3 afternoons and Daniel Underwood went 2-4.
Purdue and Northwestern return to the Rocky Miller Park diamond on Saturday for a 1 p.m. doubleheader.