April 3, 2004
Game One Box Score | Game Two Box Score
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Seven has been the golden number thus far as the Purdue baseball team dropped a pair of Big Ten games to Penn State on Saturday, 7-3 and 7-2. The Boilermakers defeated PSU on Friday in the series opener, 7-3.
The twinbill losses dropped Purdue's record to 10-12 overall and 1-2 in the Big Ten Conference. The Nittany Lions are now 12-10 and 2-1.
In the first game, Penn State responded to a quick Purdue start and worked to a 7-3 defeat of the Boilermakers. Junior outfielder Mike Coles (Hammond, Ind.) led off the game with a solo home run and senior shortstop Mitch Koester (Effingham, Ill.) drilled a solo shot in the fifth, but Penn State had an answere every time.
The Nittany Lions scored two runs in the first, one in the second and one in the third off Boilermaker starter Brian Karpel (Sr., Lakewood, Ohio) and put up an insurance run in the fifth and capped the scoring with two in the sixth to get the win. The latter three runs came off sophomore reliever Jay Buente (Evansville, Ind.).
The loss dropped Karpel to 1-2 on the season, while PSU's Sean Stidfole earned his second win of the year with the seven-inngin complete game.
Penn State received a second complete game on Saturday afternoon when Aaron Tressler held the Boilermakers in check in a 7-2 Nittany Lion win. Purdue hurler Dan Sattler (Fr., West Lafayette, Ind.) was victimized by seven runs in 2.2 innings for the loss. Sattler is now 3-2 on the season.
Like in the early game, Purdue opened the Game Two scoring with a run in the top of the first, but Penn State was again able to plate two in the bottom of the inning for a 2-1 lead, an advantage they would not relinquish.
Freshman outfielder Mitch Hilligoss (Windsor, Ill.) singled in the first and scored from second on a fielding error on a grounder off the bat of sophomore first baseman Eric Wolfe (Toronto, Ontario). Hilligoss, who had his 12-game hitting streak snapped in the first game, went 2-for-3 at the plate in the nightcap.
Penn State put the game away with a five spot in the third, capped by a three-run home run to right center by Brett Showalter, his first homer of the season. Leading 7-1 after three innings, the Nittany Lions were able to cruise through the rest of the game behind the arm of Tressler.
Purdue was able to manage a final run in the fifth on two hits, a one-out double by Coles and an RBI infield single by senior Ben Fritz (Minnetonka, Minn.).
For the afternoon, Purdue managed 12 hits, six in each contest, and stranded seven runners on base. Penn State pounded out 20 hits during the double header, including five doubles. The Nittany Lions left 14 runners on the base paths.
The Boilermakers and Nittany Lions conclude the four-game Big Ten series on Sunday morning at 11AM EDT, with sophomore Chris Toneguzzi (Thunder Bay, Ontario) facing Josh Palm on the mound. The gameday weather forecast calls for 36-degrees, 25-degree wind chill, and light snow at first pitch.