May 16, 2006
KALAMAZOO, Mich. - Ryne White's two-run double into the right field corner in the seventh inning proved to be the game-winning hit as the Boilermakers knocked off Western Michigan at Homer Stryker Field on Tuesday evening.
The win improved the Purdue Nine to 28-22 with five games left in the regular season.
Homer Stryker Field is the home of the Kalamazoo Kings, an independent minor league baseball team that competes in the Frontier League.
White came to the plate with two runners on base and two out in the seventh. The freshman turned on a 1-1 pitch from WMU reliever Bryan Rumple and put the ball into the corner, driving in Spencer Ingaldson from second and Mitch Hilligoss from first.
White went 2-4 at the plate, raising his average to .361, the second-best on the Purdue squad.
Allan Donato was the first of six Purdue pitchers to take the mound on Tuesday and picked up his third win of the season, pitching 5.0 innings and allowing four runs on four hits and striking out two.
Closer Chris Toneguzzi pitched a scoreless ninth inning to record his fourth save.
The Broncos scored first, taking a 2-0 lead after one inning on a two-run homer by Nathan Marquardt. The lead was cut in half in the top of the second when John Hunter hit his third home run over the wall in left-center.
WMU moved back to a two run lead with a single run in the home half of the second, but the lead was short-lived as Purdue scored twice in the third on five straight singles. RBI base hits by Ingaldson and Hilligoss drove in Kyle Reesing and Jordan Comadena to knot the score at 3-3.
In the top of the fourth, Reesing launched his second homer of 2006 deep to left, driving in Alex Jaffee in front of him to put the Boilermakers on top 5-3.
The Broncos pushed across a run in the fifth to move to within one, setting the stage for White's double. A WMU run in the eighth made the score 7-5, but Toneguzzi shut down the Broncos in the ninth to secure the win.
Purdue and Western Michigan meet again on Wednesday at Hyames Field, the on-campus field at WMU. First pitch for Purdue's final regular-season non-conference game is slated for 1 p.m.