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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Zac Fascia hit a two-run homer in the seventh inning and was behind the plate for the Boilermakers' third shutout of the season as Purdue baseball defeated Michigan State 2-0 in the series opener Friday at Alexander Field.
Trent Johnson pitched 6 1/3 innings of three-hit ball, striking out five in his longest outing as a Boilermaker. He lowered his league-leading ERA (0.39) and batting average against (.141) in Big Ten play and has now worked 14 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings in conference play dating back to April 7 at Nebraska. The Crawfordsville native has been the starting pitcher in three shutout wins, all in Big Ten play, over the last two seasons.
Johnson gave way to Matt Moore out of the bullpen after striking out the MSU (14-29, 3-12 B1G) cleanup hitter to begin the seventh inning. It was his 100th career strikeout. Johnson is believed to be only the seventh Boilermaker to reach 100 career strikeouts as a sophomore.
Moore (4-0) retired all six batters he faced, striking out the final batter of the seventh and eighth innings as well as the first batter of the top of the ninth. Bo Hofstra closed out the win by retiring the Spartans' No. 2 and 3 hitters, earning his sixth save of the season. Johnson, Moore and Hofstra teamed up to retire 26 of MSU's 30 batters to come to the plate.
The Boilermakers (18-26, 7-8 B1G) improved to 5-1 on their season-long nine-game homestand. They moved into a three-way tie for eighth place in the standings with Ohio State and Rutgers, which both had their games postponed due to inclement weather Friday.
The Purdue pitching staff posted its fourth no-walk game of the season. Two of those have come during the current homestand.
Mason Erla pitched equally well Friday, limiting the Boilermakers to three hits over seven innings. He was very efficient with his pitches the first time through the Purdue lineup.
Fascia is 9-for-20 with 10 RBI during Purdue's homestand and has hit safely in eight consecutive games.
A few other notable streaks came to an end Friday in the pitcher's duel. McKenzie's 11-game hit streak was snapped, but he did draw a pair of walks to reach base safely multiple times for the 12th consecutive games. Skyler Hunter got on base via a two-out error in the fourth inning, but that was not enough to extend his 24-game reached base safely streak. A 37-game on-base safely streak against Big Ten teams dating back to April of last season also came to an end. Milo Beam's six-game RBI streak was snapped as well.
With a runner at second base in the first inning, Ryan Howe made a nifty backhanded stop on a grounder that skipped off the mound. That play prevented what would have likely been a two-out RBI single. Howe later doubled on a hot shot to the wall in left field in the eighth inning. But he was doubled off at second base when Hunter hit a line drive right at the left fielder.
Johnson, Moore and Hofstra teamed up to record five true 1-2-3 innings. They retired the final 10 batters of the game in order after Fascia erased a one-out single in the top of the sixth by throwing out a base runner at second base on a well-timed pitch out.
Game 2 of the series is slated for Saturday at 6 p.m. ET.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Zac Fascia hit a two-run homer in the seventh inning and was behind the plate for the Boilermakers' third shutout of the season as Purdue baseball defeated Michigan State 2-0 in the series opener Friday at Alexander Field.
Trent Johnson pitched 6 1/3 innings of three-hit ball, striking out five in his longest outing as a Boilermaker. He lowered his league-leading ERA (0.39) and batting average against (.141) in Big Ten play and has now worked 14 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings in conference play dating back to April 7 at Nebraska. The Crawfordsville native has been the starting pitcher in three shutout wins, all in Big Ten play, over the last two seasons.
Johnson gave way to Matt Moore out of the bullpen after striking out the MSU (14-29, 3-12 B1G) cleanup hitter to begin the seventh inning. It was his 100th career strikeout. Johnson is believed to be only the seventh Boilermaker to reach 100 career strikeouts as a sophomore.
Moore (4-0) retired all six batters he faced, striking out the final batter of the seventh and eighth innings as well as the first batter of the top of the ninth. Bo Hofstra closed out the win by retiring the Spartans' No. 2 and 3 hitters, earning his sixth save of the season. Johnson, Moore and Hofstra teamed up to retire 26 of MSU's 30 batters to come to the plate.
The Boilermakers (18-26, 7-8 B1G) improved to 5-1 on their season-long nine-game homestand. They moved into a three-way tie for eighth place in the standings with Ohio State and Rutgers, which both had their games postponed due to inclement weather Friday.
The Purdue pitching staff posted its fourth no-walk game of the season. Two of those have come during the current homestand.
Mason Erla pitched equally well Friday, limiting the Boilermakers to three hits over seven innings. He was very efficient with his pitches the first time through the Purdue lineup.
Fascia had only seen four pitches over his first two at-bats of the night, grounding out to end the second inning and popping out to begin the top of the fifth. But with Cole McKenzie at second base in the seventh inning, Fascia worked the count full against Erla (2-8). The left-handed hitter barreled up the full-count offering, which he called a "cookie" after the game. Fascia elevated the ball into right center and it carried over the fence for his team-leading third home run of the season and first at Alexander Field as a Boilermaker.He caught a shutout & hit the game-winning homer in the 7th. Tough to have a better Friday than Zac Fascia did tonight at Alexander. Hear from @Fascia15 after the 2-0 victory. #BoilerUp pic.twitter.com/AZAHPKq5qJ
— Purdue Baseball (@PurdueBaseball) May 4, 2019
Fascia is 9-for-20 with 10 RBI during Purdue's homestand and has hit safely in eight consecutive games.
A few other notable streaks came to an end Friday in the pitcher's duel. McKenzie's 11-game hit streak was snapped, but he did draw a pair of walks to reach base safely multiple times for the 12th consecutive games. Skyler Hunter got on base via a two-out error in the fourth inning, but that was not enough to extend his 24-game reached base safely streak. A 37-game on-base safely streak against Big Ten teams dating back to April of last season also came to an end. Milo Beam's six-game RBI streak was snapped as well.
With a runner at second base in the first inning, Ryan Howe made a nifty backhanded stop on a grounder that skipped off the mound. That play prevented what would have likely been a two-out RBI single. Howe later doubled on a hot shot to the wall in left field in the eighth inning. But he was doubled off at second base when Hunter hit a line drive right at the left fielder.
Johnson, Moore and Hofstra teamed up to record five true 1-2-3 innings. They retired the final 10 batters of the game in order after Fascia erased a one-out single in the top of the sixth by throwing out a base runner at second base on a well-timed pitch out.
Game 2 of the series is slated for Saturday at 6 p.m. ET.
Zac Fascia's 2-run homer headlines the full #Purdue highlights from the @BTNStudentU production of the 2-0 win vs. Michigan State on Friday at Alexander FIeld. #BoilerUp pic.twitter.com/hJ5C6OKnsh
— Purdue Baseball (@PurdueBaseball) May 4, 2019