University of Minnesota Athletics
PURDUE RALLIES TO DEFEAT GOPHERS 6-1
5/19/2000 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Purdue starting pitcher David Gassner threw his fourth complete game of the season, limiting the Gophers to four hits and one walk while striking out four batters. He retired the final nine Gophers of the game and improved to 6-3 on the season. Minnesota's Ben Birk worked 7 1/3 innings, his longest appearance of the season, but allowed six runs (four earned) and nine hits and dropped to 4-3 for the season.
Nick McIntyre came off the Purdue bench to go 3-for-3 with three runs batted in. Chris Luce added two hits to the 10-hit Boilermaker attack. No Gopher had two hits in the game.
Gassner and Birk threw three scoreless innings to begin the game. Both teams had leadoff doubles in the third inning, but failed to score. The Gophers scored the game's first run in the top of the fourth inning. Josh Holthaus doubled down the left-field line, was sacrificed to third on a bunt by Jason Kennedy, and scored on a sacrifice fly by Luke Appert.
The Boilermakers took their first lead of the tournament with three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning. Daryl Hallada reached on a fielding error by Minnesota shortstop Rick Brosseau. Daryl Underwood grounded a single to left field, advancing Hallada to second base. Luce lined a single off of Brosseau's wrist, scoring Hallada and sending Underwood to third base. McIntyre executed a hit-and-run single to right-center field, scoring Underwood and moving Luce to third base. Purdue followed with a safety squeeze, as Mike Duursma bunted down the first-base line to score Luce with the Boilermakers' third run.
Purdue added three insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth inning. David Blomberg and Erik Frei led off the inning with bunt singles. After a foul out, Hallada dumped a single into center field, scoring Blomberg. Minnesota replaced Birk with Brandon Kitzerow, and Purdue executed a double steal on his first pitch, sending Frei to third base and Hallada to second. Underwood was intentionally walked to load the bases, and Luce popped out to first base attempting to bunt. McIntyre laced a single to left field, scoring Frei and Hallada with the final two Boilermaker runs.
