March 31, 2004
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Boilermaker nine fell victim to Ball State and 'Charlie All-Staff' as the Cardinals used seven pitchers in a 4-1 defeat of Purdue at Lambert Field on Wednesday afternoon. The loss drops Purdue to 9-10 entering Big Ten play.
Ball State scored a run in the second inning and two in the third off Boilermaker freshman starter Andrew Groves (North Liberty, Ind.). Groves (0-1) went 2.2 innings on the mound, yielding four hits and one walk while striking out two.
Ryan DeGeeter picked up his third win of the season for the Cardinals, pitching a scheduled 3.0 innings without allowing a run. DeGeeter surrended four of Purdue's five hits and struck out two batters.
Ball State struck first with a run in the second on a wild pitch by Groves that scored Brad Miller from third base. Miller led off the inning with a single, moved to second on a walk to Kiel Holman and advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Lucas Fry.
The Cardinals extended their lead to 3-0 in the third. Matt Singleton's double to left drove home Mike Sullivan, and Singleton later scored on a groundout by Marc Franz.
Purdue broke the shutout with a run in the fourth without a hit, drawing to within two. Sophomore Eric Wolfe (1B, Toronto, Ontario) opened the inning with a walk and advanced 90 feet when senior third baseman Simon Klink (Auburn, Ind.) was hit by a pitch. Junior Andy Dahl (Fair Oaks, Calif.) entered as a pinch hitter and put down a successful sacrifice to move each runner up a base. Freshman second baseman Eric Osborn followed with a grounder to first that plated Wolfe with the Boilermaker run.
In the top of the fifth, Ball Stat would close the scoring with a Kyle Dygert two-out home run to right field.
The Boilermakers would threaten in the sixth with two walks and a single, but would strand all three runners on base. For the game, Purdue left 11 runners on, including six in scoring position.
Ball State out-hit Purdue 9-5, with four of the Boilermaker hits coming from the bats of Osborn and freshman Mitch Hilligoss (Windsor, Ill.). Hilligoss' two hits extended his team-leading hitting streak to 11 games, while Osborn has now hit safely in the last six games.
The Boilermakers open the Big Ten season this weekend with four games at Penn State. The series opens on Friday at Beaver Field with a 3PM first pitch. The Boilermakers will send junior Scott Byrnes (1-2, 4.56, Cincinnati, Ohio) to the mound against the Nittany Lions' Jim Farrell (2-3, 6.37) in the series opener.