March 14, 2009
EVANSVILLE, Ind. - Left-hander Matt Jansen allowed just one run on six hits while striking out a career-high 11 batters to come up with Purdue's second consecutive outstanding start on the mound, as the Boilermakers downed host school Evansville 3-1 at the Dunn Hospitality Classic on Saturday.
Jansen (2-2), who was coming off a rough three-inning start last weekend against Texas State, followed Matt Bischoff's 12-K performance on Friday against Mississippi Valley State to lead Purdue (5-7) to its third consecutive win.
The junior southpaw retired 12 consecutive UE hitters from the third to the seventh innings, including striking out five straight in the third and fourth, and held the Purple Aces (4-9) off the scoreboard until the ninth.
Jansen, who struck out nine batters in his first start of the season against South Florida on Feb. 21, found himself in trouble only once in the early going. After collecting just one hit through the first two innings, Evansville led off the third with back-to-back singles by Andrew Gher and Alex Acheson to place runners on first and second with no outs.
Jansen worked his way out of the jam with a failed sacrifice bunt attempt, in which first baseman Drew Madia gunned down lead runner Gher at third, and back-to-back strikeouts by Jim Viscomi and Andy Smith to end the threat.
From there on Jansen dominated the UE hitters, striking out the side in the fourth and sitting down the following seven Purple Aces in order before allowing a one out single in the seventh.
The southpaw starter, who gave up eight runs on seven hits in 2 2/3 innings last Saturday at Texas State, bounced back and carried a shutout into the ninth before finally surrendering a two-out RBI single to Trentt Copeland that forced him from the game.
Closer Kevin Cahill entered with two on, including the tying run at first, and struck out pinch hitter Greg Wallace on five pitches to end the game and nail down his second save in as many days.
Offensively, Purdue gave Jansen all the runs he would need in the first. The Boilers plated two runs on an RBI single by Jonathan Moore and a sacrifice fly by Eric Nielsen.
Dan Black added Purdue's third run on a sac fly in the seventh.
Purdue will look to earn its first weekend sweep of the season when it closes out the Dunn Hospitality Classic on Sunday against IPFW. Right-hander Matt Morgan will start for Purdue in the noon EDT game.