Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
Purdue
Wildcats Hold On For 6-5 Win Over Purdue
4/11/2003 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 11, 2003
EVANSTON, Ill. -
Purdue Box Score in PDF Format
Northwestern center-fielder David Gresky (North Royalton, Ohio/St. Ignatius) hit a towering two-run home run deep over the right-field fence to give NU a 6-3 lead in the bottom of the seventh inning. Gresky's third round-tripper of the season proved to be the deciding factor in a 6-5 back-and-forth battle between the Wildcats and Boilermakers.
Winning 4-3 after Jon Mikrut's (Wauconda, Ill./Carmel) two-run double to deep center field, Gresky stepped to the plate and crushed the third pitch he saw deep into the rightfield corner for his eighth home run of his career. Gresky finished the game 2-for-3 with three RBI and a run scored. Mikrut raised his Big Ten leading batting average to .419, going 2-for-4 at the plate. Mikrut also had three RBI, giving him a team-leading 16 on the year.
The Boilermakers jumped out early, scoring a single run in the top of the second inning off Wildcat starter Dan Konecny (Ripon, Wis./Ripon). Konecny went seven strong innings, giving up three runs on five hits to even his record at 3-3. He also struck out four and walked two. Konecny has gone at least six innings in all eight of his starts this season. He leads the Big Ten with 57.1 innings pitched.
NU answered the Purdue run in the bottom of the fourth as Boilermaker Mitch Pruemer retired the first nine Wildcats that he saw. But in the fourth, Second-baseman Eric Roeder (Onsted, Mich./Onsted) led off with a Texas-leaguer double to center field and came around to score on a Gresky single through the left side of the infield.
The 'Cats took the lead in the bottom of the sixth when Roeder again led off the inning with a double, moving to third on designated hitter Mark Ori's (Niles, Ill./Maine South) sacrifice bunt. Mikrut stepped up and lined the first pitch he saw into center field, giving NU the 2-1 lead after six complete innings.
Purdue answered the Wildcat rally, scoring two runs in the top of the seventh innings to take a 3-2 lead and setting the table for Mikrut and Gresky's seventh-inning heroics.
The Boilers made a game of it in the eighth and ninth innings as Mikrut relieved Konecny on the mound for the final two innings. Mikrut gave up two runs in the eighth off four straight singles and a sacrifice bunt. In the ninth, Purdue hit a two-out double to put a runner in scoring position with the score 6-5 Northwestern. But Mikrut got the final hitter to fly out to centerfield, preserving the win and picking up his third save of the year.
NU and Purdue meet for a doubleheader tomorrow at 1 p.m. All four games of the series are being played at Northwestern's Rocky Miller Park.
