April 25, 2010
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Purdue baseball team dropped a 6-3 decision to Northwestern on Sunday at Lambert Field.
The defeat dropped the Boilermakers to 23-16 for the year, to 6-6 in Big Ten play and kept them from a share of the league lead at the midway point of the conference season. Northwestern, which took two of three from Purdue over the weekend, improved to 15-23 overall and moved into a four-way tie for first in the Big Ten with Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State at 7-5.
The Wildcats opened the scoring in the second inning by plating three runs on three hits and two walks off of Purdue starter Matt Jansen and reliever Drew Wurdack.
The Boilermakers answered with single runs in the second and third to make it a one-run game. Ryan Bridges put the Boilers on the scoreboard with an RBI double and Cameron Perkins hit his first of two solo home runs in the third.
Back-to-back Purdue errors in the fifth lead to an unearned Northwestern run and a two-run edge, which Perkins trimmed to one once again with his second four-bagger of the game and his team-leading seventh of the year in the sixth.
The Wildcats took advantage of two walks and another Purdue error in the eighth to tack on two more runs while the bullpen shutout the Purdue offense on just one hit over the final three frames.
NU closer Paul Snieder picked up his first win of the season with three solid innings of relief. The right-hander allowed one run on two hits before turning the game over to Zach Morton in the eighth. Morton struck out three and walked one over two hitless innings to notch his first save of the season.
Purdue's Jansen (2-3) was charged with the loss after allowing one run on three walks in one inning.
The Boilermakers will return to action on Tuesday when they head to Fort Wayne, Ind., for a nonconference tilt with IPFW. First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m.