April 27, 2010
FORT WAYNE, Ind. - Right-hander Robert Ramer allowed just two hits and one walk over five solid innings and Tyler Spillner, a Fort Wayne native, broke the Purdue season triples record as the Boilermakers held off IPFW 3-2 at Mastodon Field on Tuesday.
The win snapped a two-game losing streak for the Boilers and improved them to 24-16 for the year, while IPFW fell to Purdue for a second time this season and dropped to 10-29.
Ramer, making just his second career start, retired 15 of the 18 hitters he faced and allowed just a single in the third and a double and walk in the fifth. He improved to 2-0 for the year with the effort and finished the contest with a pair of strikeouts.
The Boilers opened the scoring with a single run in the second on a two-out base hit by Ryan Bridges and an RBI double to right-center off the bat of Barrett Serrato to jump out to a 1-0 lead.
Spillner's record-breaking seventh three-bagger of the year and a wild throw from the outfield on Eric Charles' fly out to right led to another tally in the top of the third, and he added Purdue's third run in the seventh on a RBI single from Dominick D'Agata after opening the frame with a base knock.
The Mastodons plated a pair of runs in the bottom of the seventh on three consecutive singles, a bases-loaded walk and a run-scoring ground out to first, but stranded runners on second and third when reliever Brad Schreiber struck out Nate Thomas looking to end the threat.
Schreiber tossed 2 1/3 shutout innings to close out the one-run win and nail down his first collegiate save.
The Boilermakers return to Big Ten action this weekend with a three-game road series against Indiana in Bloomington. First pitch for the opener on Friday is slated for 3 p.m. with right-hander Matt Bischoff the scheduled starter for the Boilers.
Note: The previous season record for triples was six and shared by four players, most recently by Shannon Stigleman in 1995.