Box Score | Series Stats |Weekend Gallery 
CULLOWHEE, N.C. -- Three Boilermaker pitchers teamed up for 15 strikeouts in the nightcap of Saturday's doubleheader to lead Purdue baseball to a 9-5 victory in the finale of the season-opening series at Western Carolina.
The Catamounts (2-1) took game one Saturday, 15-4, to clinch the series victory. The Boilermakers scored first in all three games of the weekend, but were outscored 37-19 in the series.
Matt Frawley (five), Kyle Wood (seven) and Joe Eichmann (three) led Purdue to victory in the nightcap of Saturday's action, combining for the third most strikeouts in team history and the Boilers' most since fanning 16 batters in a March 2010 victory at Ohio.
Brandon Krieg had three doubles, three walks and three runs scored over the two games. Justin Gubser connected for a solo home run in game one, the first long ball by a Boilermaker this season, and finished the day 3-for-7. He started games at catcher and first base. Kyle Johnson had three RBI in the game two win. Jeff Evak doubled in his first two at-bats of the day and reached base safely four times total.
Wood (1-0) struck out seven of the 15 batters he faced over three innings of two-run relief to earn the victory in game two. Frawley struck out four while facing the minimum over the first three innings. Eichmann worked a 1-2-3 eighth inning and struck out the side in the bottom of the ninth after the first two batters of the frame reached base safely.
The Boilermakers return to action Friday when they open play at the Kleberg Bank Classic, a tournament hosted by Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at Whataburger Field, the home of the Houston Astros' double-A affiliate in the Texas League.
Eichmann Closes Out Game 2 Win With Purdue's 15th Strikeout
Game Two Recap
Purdue scored four times in the first inning and led 5-0 entering the bottom of the fourth. It was the Boilers' biggest inning of the weekend after seeing the home team score four-plus runs in a frame five times.
A 5-4-3 double play erased a one-out single in the first inning to allow Frawley to go nine-up, nine-down on his first time through the WCU lineup. But five of the first six batters reached base safely for the Catamounts in the fourth inning, consecutive walks and a passed ball allowing two of the three runs to score in the frame.
The Boilermakers answered with a pair of runs in the top of the fifth after Krieg, Johnson and Gubser strung together three straight hits. Johnson scored on a wild pitch.
Leading 7-5 entering the bottom of the seventh, WCU leadoff man Bradly Strong led off with a triple to left center, his fourth extra-base hit of the day. But Wood responded by striking out three of the next four batters to leave runners on the corners. After giving up singles to the first two batters he faced, Wood retired nine of the next 13 batters, seven via the strikeout.
A walk and an error opened the door for WCU in the bottom of the ninth, but Eichmann responded by striking out the Catamounts' 2-3-4 hitters to close out the win and earn his first collegiate save.
The first four hitters in the Purdue lineup all had multiple hits, accounting for 10 of the team's 13. Michael Vilardo, Krieg and Johnson each scored twice in the win.
Game One Recap
The Boilermakers held early leads of 2-0 and 3-2, but WCU took the lead for good with a five-run third inning. Strong delivered two-out, two-run doubles in both the second and third innings. The latter of the two gappers chased starter Brett Haan (0-1), who struck out four through 2 2/3 innings but could not get the final out of the bottom of the third.
Even though they sent nine men to the plate in the third, WCU only hit the ball out of the infield twice. A walk and three infield singles kept the inning alive for Strong.
Gubser went deep to left center to lead off the top of the second inning and drove in another run with a sacrifice fly in the third. Evak and Harry Shipley doubled and singled in consecutive at-bats in both the second and fourth innings to help produce two runs for the Boilers.
B.J Nobles (1-0) was dominant in six innings of three hit relief, striking out 11 of the 21 batters he faced. He fanned the first three batters he faced and struck out the side again in the top of the eighth. Krieg's double to right center was the only hit he allowed over a stretch of 12 at-bats from the fifth through ninth innings.
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