April 10, 2009
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - Purdue right-hander Matt Bischoff tossed his second complete game of the season and shortstop Nick Overmyer rallied the Boilermaker offense to a late 6-4 win over Penn State (18-13, 3-4 Big Ten) in the opener of a three-game conference series at Medlar Field on Friday. The Lions, who have 11 come-from-behind victories this season, had rallied from a two-run deficit for a 4-3 lead through six innings.
The victory snapped a two-game losing streak and improved the Boilers to 14-14 overall and 4-2 in the Big Ten.
Bischoff, who went all nine innings at Northwestern in Purdue's Big Ten opener on March 27, allowed only four runs on 10 hits with nine stirkeouts and one walk against the Nittany Lions Friday. The Boiler ace improved to 3-2 on the year and helped Purdue to a third straight league win.
Overmyer, who finished the game 4 for 5 with three RBIs and a pair of runs scored, snapped a 4-4 tie in the top of the eighth inning with an RBI single and came around to score an insurance run later in the frame.
With the game knotted after seven complete, pinch hitter David Blount led off the top of the eighth with a double down the right field line. Overmyer followed with his fourth straight hit of the game, a single to right-center, to score Blount and hand the Boilers a 5-4 edge.
After Jonathan Lilly and Alex Jaffee struck out and flew out, Eric Nielsen reached on an infield single and pinch hitter Ben Wolgamot drew a walk to load the bases for Eric Charles.
The redshirt freshman, who extended his hitting streak to 10 straight games on a single in the seventh, plated Overmyer from third with a five-pitch walk to extend the Purdue lead to 6-4.
With the two-run advantage, Bischoff needed just five pitches to get out of the eighth and he worked around a two-out single and a walk in the ninth by striking out No. 3 hitter Mike Deese looking for his ninth punchout to end the game.
Purdue opened the scoring when Overmyer came home on an infield single by Jaffee in the second, and Overmyer answered PSU's game-tying run in the bottom of the frame with a two-run single in the top of the third to stake the Boilers to a 3-1 edge.
The Lions cut the lead to one with a single run in the fourth and took the ill-fated lead with two more in the fifth.
Brandon Haveman extended his hitting streak to a season-high 11 straight with a leadoff double in the seventh, and came home to even the game up at 4-4 on a double play ball off the bat of Dan Black two hitters later.
The Boilers and Lions will meet up for game two of the three-game set on Saturday at 2 p.m. Left-hander Matt Jansen is the scheduled starter for Purdue.