April 19, 2008
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Matt Jansen tossed a complete-game shutout and Dan Black slugged two home runs as the Purdue Nine defeated the Ohio State Buckeyes 8-0 on Saturday afternoon at Bill Davis Stadium.
Purdue improved to 19-16 on the season and 11-3 in the Big Ten Conference, matching its conference win total from the 2007 season (11-20).
Jansen faced just four batters over the minimum in the seven-inning outing, allowing six hits without a walk. Jansen (3-1) struck out three batters and has yielded just two runs in his last 18.0 innings over five appearances.
Black continued his power week with his second two-homer game in five days. Black hit a grand slam in the third inning and added a two-run blast in the fifth. Both of his home runs were hit to centerfield, and the six RBI day gave Black 10 RBI in his last three games - and a Big Ten-leading 45 RBI on the season.
With the game scoreless in the top of the third, Alex Jaffee led off the inning with a double to right-center and later scored on a single by Brandon Haveman. Ben Wolgamot singled and Ryne White walked to load the bases for Dan Black, who drove a 3-1 offering from OSU starter Dan DeLucia over the centerfield wall for his second grand slam of the season and the third of his career.
Rain in the third inning forced a stoppage to play in the middle of the third, a delay that lasted nearly two hours.
With the tarp off the field and the action underway, Jansen continued to dominate the Buckeye batters, retiring the first 11 batters he faced in the game.
In the fifth inning White was hit by a pitch and Black repeated his third-inning performance, hitting an 0-2 pitch to center for his second homer of the game. The Boilermakers added a single run in the sixth on an RBI single by Wolgamot to close the scoring at 8-0.
The game marked the third straight game a Boilermaker hit two home runs. Black hit one from each side of the plate this past Tuesday at Miami, and White slugged two roundtrippers on Friday night in the OSU series opener.
Black's two home runs were numbers nine and 10 of the 2008 season for the sophomore, becoming the first Boilermaker since 2003 to hit double-digit homers (Daniel Underwood, 12, and Nick McIntyre, 11).
The complete game by Jansen was the first by a Purdue pitcher this season, and the game was the fifth shutout produced by Boilermaker pitching in 2008.
The game was originally scheduled to be the first game of a doubleheader, but continued threat of heavy rain in the Columbus area forced the postponement of the nightcap. Purdue and Ohio State will play a doubleheader on Sunday with the Boilermakers leading the weekend series two games to none. The twinbill will begin at 1 p.m.