March 28, 2007
MUNCIE, Ind. - The Purdue Nine snapped a four-game losing streak to Ball State with a convincing 12-4 defeat of the Cardinals on Wednesday in the Boilermakers' final non-conference game before the start of the Big Ten season.
Behind young arms on the mound and small ball at the plate, Purdue scored its first win over Ball State since the 2002 season. The Boilermakers are now 4-6 against the Cardinals during the Doug Schreiber era.
Starting pitcher Tony Sedlmeyer, a freshman from Fort Wayne, picked up the win with three innings of work, yielding one run on four hits with three strikeouts.
Fellow freshmen Matt Jansen (Crown Point, Ind.) and Matt Bischoff (Decatur, Ind.) followed Sedlmeyer with a combined three innings of scoreless baseball, retiring the nine batters they faced in order.
At the plate the Boilermakers registered 16 hits, five walks, four hit batters, three sacrifice bunts and swiped five bases.
Ryne White led the way at the dish with a 3-for-4 afternoon and four RBI. White was active on the basepaths as well, stealing three bases despite having swiped only two bases prior to this afternoon in 73 career games.
White has now hit safely in 17 consecutive games.
Purdue broked open a 1-1 game in the third inning with two runs, and followed up with three more in the fourth to build a 6-1 lead, a deficit the Cardinals could not overcome.
With Jordan Comadena on second base after a walk and a sacrifice, White singled to right to drive in the first run of the third inning. Two batters later White stole home on an attempted double steal. In the fourth the Boilermakers tacked on a run on an RBI grounder by Dan Black and another on a single by Spencer Ingaldson. With two outs and runners on first and second, White was hit by a pitch and was followed by another hit batter in Jeff Mojzik, forcing home Purdue's sixth run.
A single Boilermaker run in the sixth made the score 7-1. Ingaldson singled through the infield and moved to third base on a double to right by White, which was misplayed along the foul line by BSU right fielder Ryan Chenoweth allowing Ingaldson to score.
Ball State tallied two runs in the bottom of the seventh to cut the Purdue lead to 7-3, but the Boilermakers answered in the eighth with a run on an infield single by Alex Jaffee, plating Ingaldson from third base.
Another Cardinal run in the home half of the eighth made the score 8-4 in favor of the Boilermakers, but Purdue had one more big inning in the bats, scoring four times in the final inning. An RBI base hit by Ingaldson, a two-run single by White and a run-scoring double down the right field line by Jaffee capped the game's scoring.
Joining White with three-hit afternoons were Ingaldson (3-for-3) and John Cummins (3-for-4). Jaffee (2-for-2) and Jon Moore (2-for-3) added two more multi-hit performances for Purdue.
The Boilermakers had four doubles against BSU, upping their Big Ten leading total to 52 on the season through 18 games, an average of 2.89 doubles per game. At that pace the Boilermakers would collect 161 two-baggers during a 56-game regular season. The Purdue season record for doubles is 115 established in 2001. The Boilermakers have reached the 100-doubles plateau six times, the last coming in 2003 (110).
Purdue opens the Big Ten Conference campaign on Friday at Lambert Field against Illinois in the Boilermakers' home debut. The four-game series begins with a 4 p.m. contect on Friday afternoon.
The Boilermakers' Big Ten pitching rotation sets up with sophomore Josh Lindblom (2-2, 2.56 ERA) on Friday, seniors Dan Sattler (1-0, 3.52) and Ricky Heines (3-2, 3.62) on Saturday and freshman Tony Sedlmeyer (2-2, 2.78) on Sunday.