April 11, 2008
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Purdue Boilermakers took full advantage of 30 m.p.h. winds blowing out to left, hitting four home runs in a 13-8 defeat of the Penn State Nittany Lions in Friday evening's Big Ten series opener at Lambert Field.
Three of the homers were of the solo variety, but it was the fourth round tripper that did the most damage.
With the bases loaded in the eighth inning in a tie game, junior catcher Eric Nielsen hit the first pitch offered by Penn State reliever John Karr over the left-centerfield wall for his first career grand slam, putting the Boilermakers on top with a lead they would not relinquish.
The Boilermakers (15-14, 7-2 Big Ten) entered the eighth inning trailing 8-5 and scored thee runs before loading the bases for Nielsen. The PSU pitching staff opted to intentionally walk Dan Black, who homered in the second inning, to get to Nielsen and bring in Karr, a right-handed reliever. Nielsen drove the first pitch he saw deep over the wall for the eventual game-winning hit.
Purdue and Penn State (10-18, 3-6) traded single runs in the first and second innings before the Nittany Lions plated four runs in the fourth inning off Boilermaker starter Matt Bischoff. The big blow in the frame was a three-run homer by PSU's Joe Blackburn, his second homer of the season and the week.
Purdue tacked on single runs in the fourth and fifth innings on an RBI single by Jonathan Lilly and a solo blast by Brandon Haveman, his second of the year.
Penn State scored twice in the sixth against reliever Chris Ivanic to go up 8-4, but Purdue put another single run on the scoreboard in the bottom of the sixth to pull within three, setting up the eight-run eighth inning. Purdue's sixth-inning tally came off the bat of Nick Overmyer, who connected for his first career home run and the third dinger of the day for the Boilermakers.
The Purdue eighth opened with a walk by Lilly, a double by Overmyer and a RBI double by Haveman. A throwing error by PSU pitcher Paul Hawkins allowed Overmyer to score from third and Haveman to move to third. A pitching change to David Lutz (0-2) resulted in a walk to Ryne White and a RBI double by Jordan Comadena, making the score 8-8. Black's intentional walk brought Nielsen to the plate and the pitching change to Karr. Nielsen's blast, his third home run of the season, put the Boilers up 12-8. Purdue scored an additional insurance run on a single by Lilly that scored a hustling Jon Moore all the way from first.
Kevin Cahill (2-0) picked up the win with 2.0 innings of scoreless relief. Cahill entered the game to start the eighth inning after Andy Loomis retired the final two batters of the seventh inning, forcing the Nittany Lions to squander a bases-loaded situation.
Purdue pounded out 15 hits, improving the team's batting average to .342 in Big Ten action. All nine starters in the Boilermaker lineup collected at least one hit, led by Haveman and Lilly with three each. Nielsen's grand slam accounted for his four RBI while Haveman and Lilly added two RBI of their own. Haveman scored three times to up his team-leading total to 33 runs scored on the season.
The Boilermakers and Nittany Lions return to Lambert on Saturday for a 1 p.m. doubleheader.