April 21, 2010
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -The Purdue pitching staff helped overcome a lean day at the plate by the Boilermaker offense in a 3-1 win over visiting Wabash at Lambert Field on Wednesday. The two-run victory bumped the Boilers' win streak to seven consecutive games and improved them to 22-14 for the season.
Managing just five hits and single runs in the second, fifth and eighth innings, Purdue relied on the arms of five different pitchers to keep the Little Giants' bats at bay and stave off the upset.
Starter Robert Ramer (1-0) picked up his first collegiate victory with four shutout innings. The redshirt freshman right-hander allowed just one hit, a first-inning single, and did not issue a walk in a limited start to earn the win.
Relievers Calvin Gunter and Drew Wurdack followed Ramer with back-to-back shutout innings in the fifth and sixth with the left-right combo each striking out a pair.
True frosh Brad Schrieber tossed a scoreless seventh before running into trouble in the eighth.
Trailing 2-0 after seven complete, Wabash got a walk to Joe Johnson and a double off the bat of Nathan Schrader to open the frame with runners on second and third and force Schreiber from the game.
Senior Kevin Cahill took over for the Boilers and got a foul pop up from PJ Tyson for the first out of the frame, but a single through the the left side of the infield by Chris Deig plated Johnson from third and cut the Purdue lead to one at 2-1.
Tanner Collins followed the run-scoring hit with a bang-bang 4-6-3 double play to get Cahill and the Boilers out of the jam with the tying run headed towards the plate on the grounder.
A leadoff triple by Jon Moore and a sacrifice fly off the bat David Blount pushed the Purdue lead back to two runs in the home half of the eighth, and Cahill worked around a pair of Wabash base runners in the ninth to nail down his third save of the season.
Purdue will return to league action this weekend when it hosts Northwestern for a trio of games at Lambert Field. First pitch for the opener on Friday is slated for 4 p.m. Scheduled starter Matt Bischoff will continue his road towards Purdue history as he enters the game just eight strikeouts away from breaking the career record of 257 Ks held by Chris Bloomer (1994-97).