April 13, 2008
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Sunday afternoon didn't go as Purdue had hoped as the Boilermakers missed their chance to sweep a four-game Big Ten series, dropping a 13-3 decision to the Penn State Nittany Lions at Lambert Field.
Purdue (17-15, 9-3 Big Ten) remains in second place through three Big Ten series, two games behind first-place Michigan (11-1). The nine conference wins are the most for a Purdue team through three weekends of Big Ten play in program history.
Penn State came out firing on all cylinders against the Boilers in the series finale, scoring in seven of nine innings and equaling its run total from the first three games of the weekend.
Quickly behind 5-0, Purdue tried to rally in the third inning with two runs on a sacrifice fly by Brandon Haveman and a RBI single by Ben Wolgamot. However, the Nittany Lions would score at least one run in each of the next three innings to leave little doubt about the day's outcome.
Purdue used six pitchers on the day, the longest outing coming from Tony Sedlmeyer who went 2.2 innings out of the bull pen. Starter Connor Sestak (1-2) was hit with the loss, yielding two runs in 2.0 innings.
The loss prevented Purdue from claiming its first Big Ten series sweep since taking four games from Minnesota in 2005 at Lambert Field, and helped PSU avoid being swept for the first time since 2003 at Minnesota.
The Boilermakers travel to Oxford, Ohio, on Tuesday afternoon for a non-conference match-up against the Miami RedHawks before taking on Ohio State in Columbus in the next Big Ten Conference series.