April 23, 2003
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue baseball pulled to within one win of equalling last season's victory total with a 5-3 win on Wednesday at Lambert Field against the Xavier Musketeers. The Boilermakers won for the 23rd time this season, upping their record to 23-15 while Xavier fell to 17-19-2.
The Boilermaker nine scored in three innings and used another strong performance on the mound by the pitching staff to win for the fifth consecutive time in non-conference play.
Purdue jumped on the scoreboard in the bottom of the first with a single run on a Daniel Underwood RBI single to right field. Tyler Johnstone led off the inning with a walk and went to second and third on two wild pitches before the Underwood basehit.
The Boilermakers stretched the lead to 4-0 in the third inning. Nick McIntyre singled to start the inning and stole second base. Underwood followed with his second hit of the game, a double down the left field line that plated McIntyre. Ben Fritz was hit by a pitch and John Hunter singled to center to drive home Underwood and advance Fritz to third base. An RBI grounder to second by Brad Kriner scored Fritz with the third run of the inning.
Xavier erased the zero on its half of the scoreboard with two runs in the fourth. A sacrifice fly by Alec Moss and an RBI double by Brett Smith tallied the runs and cut the Boilermaker lead in half at 4-2.
Purdue answered in the bottom of the fourth with a run another RBI hit by Underwood. With two outs, McIntyre doubled to left and Underwood singled to left-center to score McIntyre from second base. The three-hit performance by Underwood was his 17th multiple-hit game of the year and fifth with three or more hits. Underwood also posted his tenth multi-RBI game of the year.
Xavier pushed across a final run in the ninth on an infield single by Steve Sakosits, but Purdue hurler Matt Skripsky enticed Eric Greenwell to hit into a game-ending doubleplay to record his first save of the season.
Jesse Krause started on the mound for the Boilermakers and picked up his first win of the year with 4.0 innings of work. Krause yielded two runs on four hits with three strikeouts. Luke Howard and Jay Buente paired up for 3.1 innings of scoreless, one-hit relief before Skripsky closed the contest.
Wednesday's game will be telecast on Insight Cable channel 5 at 5 p.m. on Thursday. The game was produced for television by Hall of Music Productions and students in a Purdue interdisciplinary video production class. Elliot Bloom, assistant sports information director, and Travis Dorsch, former football and baseball player who will graduate in May, provide play-by-play and color commentary.
Purdue will be back in action this weekend at Lambert Field in a four-game Big Ten series with Ohio State. The Buckeyes are currently in second place in the league while the Boilermakers hold down the fourth spot in the standings.