Purdue Baseball-Michigan State wins doubleheader to take the series

Friday’s game was an interesting one. The Boilers won 5-3 in 11 innings off of a Michael Mullen grounder through the 5-6 hole of the infield to drive in the go ahead run. Michigan State’s starter struck out 10 batters and the pitcher in relief struck out 4 for a total of 14 batters in the game. On the flip side the team also had 15 hits. Steve Maniago had a day for himself, he went yard over the short right field wall for his first collegiate home run and was also involved in two of the three double plays that the team had.

Jordan Minch worked 7 1/3 innings of three-run ball, striking out five and issuing just one walk. He has pitched into the eighth inning in each of his first three Big Ten starts this season. He has been solid lately, and has been doing his job.

The Boilermakers sent four different pitchers to the mound on Friday night capped off with Matt Gibbs throwing three shutout innings and picking up his first collegiate victory.

The Spartans and Boilermakers decided to play a doubleheader on Saturday due to projected rain in the forecast for Sunday.  They came up short in both games, only losing by one run in each.

Kyle Wood finished the day 3-for-8 with a hit in both games to extend his reached-safely streak to 17 consecutive games. Cody Strong delivered a game-tying single in the seventh inning of game one and also had three hits on the day. Kyle Johnson's two-run triple in the fourth inning of game one was the Boilers' first three-bagger of the season.

The first game was back and forth the whole time. Purdue was up 4-0 and 5-2 at one time but never saw the lead again. Gavin Downs was dealing like he always does, unfortunate that the defense could not get out of situations when they needed to.

Joe Eichmann was docked with the loss in the first game, giving up one run in the bottom of the 7^th after Purdue had tied it up at 6-6 in the top half of the frame.  Purdue could not convert on double plays in several innings that would have gotten them out of jams that eventually led to runs.

The top four batters in the line-up (Krieg, Strong, S. McHugh, and Wood) all had two hits in the game.

The second game of the doubleheader was different the first two. Everyone seemed slower and lazier as the Boilers dropped the series with a 2-1 loss. Wood and Johnson were aboard in the top of the second when Jack Picchiotti delivered a two-out single to right field. Wood scored the tying run but Johnson was thrown out at the plate by Jimmy Pickens after Fisher did a nice job blocking the plate.

Brett Haan pitched well in his third start of the season, going 4.1 IP, 6H, 2ER, BB, and 2Ks.

Tim McElory saw action in all three games this weekend.

Purdue dropped to 7-24 overall and 3-6 in Big Ten play, they stand alone in 9th place with games still to be played today.

The Boilers are still in search for one more win that will give Coach Doug Schreiber his 450^th career win. The team returns to action on Tuesday at Alexander Field against Butler at 5pm.