Groups award baseball player weekly honors

By Andrew Hershberger
Assistant Sports Editor

The Big Ten Conference and Louisville Slugger honored Purdue pitcher Chadd Blasko with a pair of weekly awards Monday.

Blasko earned Big Ten Pitcher Of The Week status after a dominating performance Saturday against Miami of Ohio. The junior from Mishawaka, Ind., struck out a career-best 15 batters and didn't allow an earned run or a walk in eight innings of work. He held the Redhawks to four hits, earning his second victory of the season in Purdue's 12-2 win. Blasko retired 14 batters in a row from the third to the seventh inning and lowered his season ERA from 5.06 to 3.89.

Collegiate Baseball also named Blasko one of Louisville Slugger's National Players Of The Week.

The publication recognized three collegiate baseball players this week for their outstanding performances. In addition to Blasko, two other pitchers won the award. Jay Johnson of Xavier worked six perfect innings in relief during a 1-0 win over Rhode Island for the first combined no-hitter in school history. Brad Sullivan of Houston struck out 15, walked one and scattered four hits for his first complete game of his career, an 8-0 win over Tulane.

Blasko's coach, Doug Schreiber, said he is proud of his young pitcher.

"I think it was very well deserved after the type of game that he had," Schreiber said. "He took care of 15 of the 27 outs by strikeout and no one got on base via the walk. That was a positive thing for him. He kept the ball down in the zone and he threw strikes. He had more than one pitch working for him, so he had all of his off speed working for him. He put the ball in play for our defense. He just kept the ball down and kept them off stride."

Blasko has been a key to the pitching staff's success during the team's four-game winning streak. Purdue pitchers have a measly 0.75 ERA and have allowed just 17 hits, three earned runs and two walks during this span. On the season, Blasko has a 2-2 record, allowing 36 hits, 15 earned runs, nine walks and striking out 34 in 34.2 innings. He also has picked off two out of five base stealers and opposing batters are hitting only .267 with two homeruns.

Schreiber said Blasko will pitch during Purdue's weekend series at Penn State. The first game starts at 3 p.m. Friday, followed by a doubleheader at 1 p.m. Saturday and an 11 a.m. start Sunday.

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Sports editor: Jason Tomcsi

Assistant sports editor:
Andrew Hershberger

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