The Purdue Exponent


Wednesday 2/28/2001	5 day quick link 3/27 \| 3/26 \| 3/23 \| 3/22 \| 3/21

Boilers beat Valpo

Maria Lewis/Exponent Photographer

ON ITS WAY: Purdue sophomore Jim Davies delivers a pitch against Valparaiso Tuesday afternoon. Purdue beat Valpo 15-4.

By Seth Schwartz
Senior Writer

The bats started producing runs early in the Boilermakers’ game against Valparaiso Tuesday.

The Purdue baseball team exploded for 19 hits in Tuesday’s 15-4 victory over the Crusaders. Seven of those hits and seven of those runs came in the second inning as 10 Boilers came to the plate.

David Harrell led off the inning with a double to center field. Kris Luce then bunted him over to third and beat the throw to first base. John Gusich singled to center and scored Harrell, advancing Luce to second base. Mike Duursma singled to right field and scored Luce after Mitch Koester flied out. Daniel Underwood hit a sacrifice fly to right and Gusich scored. Dave Blomberg singled to center field, scoring Duursma. Sickler was hit by a pitch for the second time in two innings. McIntyre singled to right and Blomberg scored. Harrell came back up and tripled, clearing the bases before Luce flew out to end the inning.

Coach Doug Schreiber said that the team showed good energy and had a good enthusiasm level on the field Tuesday.

"I felt like our offense came out and we were aggressive for the most part," he said. "We swung the sticks enough where not every ball that we hit was hard, but we put it in play and we were due for some of those falling for us."

Purdue’s pitching did pretty well also. Sean O’Neil pitched four innings of solid work on the mound, giving up only one run on three hits and striking out two before being relieved by Jim Davies in the third.

Davies pitched two innings and allowed one run on two hits. Dustin Glant, Adam Green, Luke Howard and Matt Skripsky all saw time on the mound as well and allowed a combined two runs and four hits in three innings.

"(O’Neil) wound up with decent results and didn’t pitch all that bad," said Schreiber. "He needs to be sharper going into the weekend. I think it was a matter of controlling his fastball a little bit better and having a little bit better command of all of his pitches."

McIntyre had an excellent game, going 4-5 and adding four RBIs and scoring two runs. Following his first at bat, in which he ended the inning with a strikeout in the first with Nate Sickler on third base after getting hit by a pitch and stealing second and third, McIntyre got a hit every time he stepped to the plate.

"I really haven’t been feeling that good lately and those first couple of at bats I got a couple of lucky hits," he said. "Then I felt more comfortable up there and put some solid hits on it."

Freshman Mitch Koester's only hit of the day was his first career collegiate homerun in the third inning with nobody on base. The Boilers would score two more insurance runs in that inning, three more in the fifth and two more in the seventh.

The 19 hits tied with their 16-12 victory over Cincinnati on March 10 for the most the Boilermakers have produced in one game this season. McIntyre said it was their aggressiveness that allowed them to be so productive.

"We put the ball in play and when you’re pretty consistent at putting the ball into play, you’re going to get some (hits)," said Schreiber. "Gusich could hit a ball hard into left field and the guy catches it. And then we’ll get about three or four dink hits. Part of that’s baseball. We put the ball in play, which is a positive."

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