April 18, 2003
IOWA CITY, Iowa - In a game delayed 35-minute due to rain, the Purdue nine fought through a slow offensive start to defeat the Iowa Hawkeyes in Iowa City by a score of 9-5 on Friday night thanks to the offensive show put on by senior Daniel Underwood.
The win pushed the Boilermakers above the .500-mark in Big Ten play with a 7-6 record, 20-14 overall. Iowa dropped to 9-18 and 2-11 in conference action.
Underwood drove three home runs out of Duane Banks Field on the campus of the University of Iowa, marking the first time in the four-year starter's career that he hit three homers in a single contest. Underwood's previous high was two bombs in a game, done three times with the most recent coming against Ball State on April 2 of this season.
Mitch Pruemer (4-2) started on the hill for the Boilermakers and pitched into the seventh inning, allowing one run on five hits while striking out six. Pruemer was relieved by three innings from the arms of Jason Driscoll, Jay Buente, and Josh Herman.
The Hawkeyes got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the first on two singles and an RBI groundout off Purdue starter Mitch Pruemer's leg, scoring Jeff Gremley from third.
With one out in the visitor's half of te fourth inning, Daniel Underwood turned on the first offering from Iowa's Reed Pawelk, sending the ball deep over the left field wall for his sixth home run of the season. The blast tied the score at 1-1. Purdue threatened further in the fourth when Simon Klink doubled and Ben Fritz was hit by a pitch, but a failed hit-and-run by the Boilermakers put a stop to the threat.
The Boilermakers loaded the bases with nobody out in the fifth on a walk to Brad Kriner, a single up the middle by Eric Wolfe and a sacrifice bunt attempt by Mitch Koester that was thrown late to third in an attempt to retire the lead runner. One out later, Nick McIntyre hit into a fielder's choice to force Koester out at second but score Kriner from third. Pawelk threw to first in an attempt to pickoff McIntyre, but the throw was not handled by the Hawkeye first baseman and Wolfe scampered home on the error. After McIntyre stole second, Underwood provided more instant offense with his second jack over the left field wall, upping the Boilermaker lead to 5-1.
Purdue stretched the lead to five with a two-out rally in the sixth inning. After the first two batters of the frame were retired, Wolfe laced a double into left-center field and was followed by Koester, who singled to left to drive home the run. A walk to Andy Rempel brought up McIntyre with two runners on. McIntyre lined an RBI base hit into center to score Koester, but was thrown out on the play attempting to reach second to end the inning.
In the seventh inning, Underwood launched his third home run of the game over the wall in left field to up the Boilermaker advantage to 8-1.
Purdue tacked on a run for good measure in the ninth on an RBI pinch-hit double to right-center off the bat of John Hunter. The lined shot into the gap scored Ben Fritz, who singled to lead off the inning, from third base.
Iowa scratched out a two-out run on an error off a grounder by Cliff Bruckner that scored Andy Lytle from third base. Lytle reached base with a triple to the wall in right-center. The Hawkeyes comtinued to rally as Jeff Gremley launched a double to the wall in left-center to score both baserunners and draw the Hawkeyes to within five. New Boilermaker hurler Josh Herman was greeted with an RBI single by Nate Yoho to make the score 9-5 in favor of Purdue, but Iowa could get no closer as Herman coaxed Mike Best into flying out to left to end the game.
Daniel Underwood paced the Boilermakers at the plate, going 3-5 with three home runs and four RBI. Nick McIntyre added two RBI on a 2-5 night. Adding two hits in the game for the Old Gold and Black were Eric Wolfe and Mitch Koester, both 2-3.
Purdue and Iowa return to the diamond at Duane Banks Field on Saturday for a doubleheader. Start time of the twinbill will be 4 p.m., but could move to earlier in the afternoon due to the threat of rain in the Iowa City area.