May 18, 2007
EVANSTON, Ill. - The Northwestern Wildcats used a 21-hit attack to hand the Purdue Boilermakers a 12-3 defeat in the first game of a four-game Big Ten series at Rocky Miller Park.
Purdue pitching was unable to get the come through with the big pitch time after time as 13 of Northwestern's season-high 21 hits came with a two-strike count. Boilermaker pitchers did record 12 strikeouts in the game, but it was the two-strike hitting that propelled the Wildcats to just their sixth conference win.
Northwestern scored first, taking a 2-0 lead in the third inning on a two-run double by Jake Goebbert. The lead was short-lived as the Boilermakers answered with two runs in the fourth.
Ryne White led off the Purdue half of the fourth with a home run to right field, his eighth of the season. The homer extended White's hitting streak to 21 games. Dan Black followed with a single, moved to second on a balk, advanced to third on a groundout and scored on Alex Jaffee's RBI single.
Jaffee led all Boilermakers (22-29, 11-17) with three hits on the afternoon.
The Wildcats reclaimed the lead in the bottom of the fourth with a single run, then opened the flood gates with three runs in the sixth inning. Purdue scored a single run in the seventh to draw to within three runs at 6-3, but a six-run eighth inning for Northwestern removed all Purdue hopes of a win.
Purdue's third run was scored on a sacrifice fly by Spencer Ingaldson, scoring Andy Preston from third after the Boilermakers loaded the bases with one out.
Matt Bischoff was hit with the loss, allowing six runs on 12 hits in 5.2 innings. Bischoff (3-2) struck out six batters, establishig a Purdue freshman record with 61 strikeouts this season, surpassing the former freshman mark of 57 by Matt Kinzer in 1982.
Purdue returns to Rocky Miller Park on Saturday for a doubleheader against Northwestern beginning at 2 p.m. ET, with both games broadcast on WLAS 1410 AM in the Lafayette area and on the Web at purduesports.com.