April 10, 2004
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Purdue baseball team split a double header on Saturday afternoon with the Ohio State Buckeyes at Lambert Field, winning the opener 5-4 and dropping the night cap 9-5. The split moves Purdue to 3-4 in the Big Ten and 12-14 overall.
Purdue was led at the plate by sophomore John Hunter (West Lafayette, Ind.), who collected five of the Boilermakers' 16 hits on the day. Hunter was 5-for-7 with three runs scored and two runs batted in. The sophomore hit his second and third double of the season in the twinbill.
In Game One, Purdue jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning on three hits, highlighted by a two-run double by Hunter to left and a run-scoring double by senior Simon Klink (3B, Auburn, Ind.). The Boilermakers extended the lead to 4-0 in the third when freshman Eric Osborn (2B, Fishers, Ind.) singled to center, scoring Hunter from third.
Ohio State (13-12, 5-2) battled back with two runs in the fourth off Boilermaker starter Dan Sattler (Fr., West Lafayette, Ind.) and tied the game in the top of the seventh with two more runs off reliever Trae Dauby (So., Dale, Ind.).
In the home half of the seventh, the Boilermakers loaded the bases with two down and won the game when Osborn coaxed a four-pitch walk from Jeffrey Carroll, allowing pinch runner Joe Hartman (Fr., Batesville, Ind.) to trot home from the third with the winning run.
Dauby was credited with the win, moving his reocrd to 3-0. Carroll (0-1) was saddled with the loss for the Buckeyes.
In the second game, Purdue answered OSU's first inning run with three runs in the bottom of the inning. Junior Mike Coles (CF, Hammond, Ind.) sparked the inning with a single on the infield and steals of second and third. An errant throw to third by catcher Derek Kinnear allowed Coles to come home with the Boilermakers' first run. An RBI single by catcher Ben Fritz (Sr., Minnetonka, Minn.) plated junior Andy Dahl (RF, Fair Oaks, Calif.), and Klink's triple down the right field line passed a diving Jacob Howell pushed home Fritz.
OSU kept the pressure on the Boilermakers, scoring single runs in the second, third and fourth innings before erupting for three in the fifth. The Buckeye offense was pushed by a two-out, three-run homer by Brett Garrard, his first of the season.
Purdue scored one run in the third on a single by Klink and one more in the fifth on a sacrifice fly off the bat of sophomore Neal Gorka (Westchester, Ill.), cutting the OSU advantage to 7-5. The Buckeyes iced the game with an Adam Schneider two-run home run in the top of the seventh, capping the scoring in a 9-5 OSU win.
Boilermaker sophomore Jay Buente (Evansville, Ind.) was hit with the loss, allowing three runs on four hits in 1.2 innings of work. The loss was Buente's first decision of the season. Dan DeLucia (1-1) got the win for the Buckeyes, pitching 4.0+ innings and yielding five earned runs.
The Boilermakers and Buckeyes return to Lambert Field on Easter Sunday for a 1PM series finale.