Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
Purdue
Baseball Defeats Purdue With Seventh-Inning Rally
5/7/2000 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 7, 2000
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Senior Jason Anderson (Rockford, Ill./East) hit a pinch-hit, two-run double with two outs in the seventh inning, and pitchers Dan Padgett (Littleton, Colo./Arapahoe) and Michael Nall (Schaumburg, Ill./Schaumburg) made it stand up as the Wildcats defeated Purdue, 7-5, Saturday.
With the win, the Wildcats improve to 26-22 (9-12 Big Ten) while the Boilers fall to 30-18 (13-8 Big Ten). The two teams will continue the series with a Sunday doubleheader and a single game Monday.
Anderson, pinch hitting for Wes Robinson (Bradenton, Fla./St. Stephen's), ran the count full in his at-bat, then fouled off a couple of pitches before roping his double just inside the bag along third base. That scored Joe Hietpas (Appleton, Wis./North) and Pat Thompson (Libertyville, Ill./Libertyville), who started the rally with a two-out single.
That made a winner of Padgett, who went into the eighth before giving way to Nall. Nall retired all five batters he faced to gain his second save.
NU drew first blood in the second inning when Travis Tharp (Boulder, Colo./Boulder) hit a sacrifice fly to score Thompson, but Purdue answered with three runs in the bottom half. The teams traded runs in the third. After cutting the lead to 4-3 in the fifth, Northwestern took the lead in the top of the sixth when Eric Roeder (Onsted, Mich./Onsted) singled to right field with two outs. Tharp advanced to third, and when the rightfielder's throw ended up in the dugout, he was allowed to score and Roeder was advanced to third. Jeremy Kurella (Dunedin, Fla./Dunedin) brought Roeder home with a single to give the 'Cats a 5-4 lead.
That advantage lasted one pitch into the bottom of the sixth, as Padgett's first offering to Daniel Underwood was sent over the left field wall.
