Baseball Closes By Winning 3 of 4 Over CSU-Northridge

Where has that been all year?

After limping into the final series of the 2016 with a 7-43 record and a 15 game losing streak Purdue baseball came alive to finish strong. Whether it was everything coming together, the opponent, or the team rallying behind coach Doug Schreiber in the final four games of his 18 year career as Purdue's head coach, it worked. Not only did Purdue take three of four from Cal State Northridge to close the season strong, all three victories were of the shutout variety.

Thursday: Purdue 5, Cal State Northridge 0

In the final start of his career senior pitcher Gavin Downs was awesome. It took an impressive 145 pitches, but Downs turned in a complete game shutout for his second victory of the year as he scattered seven singles. The Matadors also helped Purdue quite a bit with six fielding errors. It was the second shutout of the season by Purdue and first since beating North Dakota on March 12^th. Kyle Johnson scored twice and had an RBI triple to lead Purdue at the plate.

Friday: Purdue 1, Cal State Northridge 0 in 10 innings

Not to be outdone by Downs, Matt Frawley threw his own gem Friday night, but did not get the victory. Frawley struck out eight and gave up only two hits in 8 1/3 innings, but had to give way in the ninth to Tanner Andrews with the game scoreless. Andrews pitched the remaining 1 2/3 innings to earn the win. Purdue scored the game's lone run in the bottom of the 10^th when Nick Dalesandro singled home Johnson who had singled and advanced to second on a wild pitch.

Saturday: Cal State Northridge 6, Purdue 0

On Saturday it was Northridge's turn to get a shutout. Kenny Rosenberg limited Purdue to only two hits in his own complete game shutout with 12 strikeouts. Shame Bryant pitched well for Purdue, giving up just one earned run in seven innings, but had no offensive support.

Sunday: Purdue 8, Cal State Northridge 0

For coach Schreiber's 996^th and final game Purdue put it all together for their third shutout win of the weekend. Mike Lutz moved to 2-2 on the season with 5 2/3 innings of scoreless ball, then Andrews came on for the final 10 outs. Since he closed the game with three innings and Purdue never gave up the lead Andrews earned his first career save and just the second save by a Purdue pitcher all season. At the plate Kyle Johnson added his 7^th home run of the season and Kyle Wood added his 12^th. Wood's was a three-run bomb to right that blew the game open.

Schreiber closes his career with a school record 485 wins. All told, he was involved in more than 1,200 games counting his service as a player in the 80s.