Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
Purdue
Wildcats Win Game One 9-6 Over Purdue
5/19/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 19, 2007
EVANSTON, Ill. - Northwestern's offense continued to roll in game one of Saturday's doubleheader against Purdue, racking up 13 hits in the Wildcats' 9-6 victory at Rocky Miller Park in Evanston. Junior Jake Owens and freshman Jake Goebbert each tallied three hits and an RBI in NU's second win of the four-game series.
Northwestern took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning, scoring an unearned run on a pair of Boilermaker errors. Second baseman Caleb Fields (Oak Park, Ill./Fenwick) reached on a fielding error, moved to third on a Jake Goebbert (Hampshire, Ill./Hampshire) single and scored when the Purdue fielder bobbled the ball.
The Boilers threatened in the top of the fourth inning, putting runners on first and third with two outs. Wildcat starter Joe Muraski (Rothschild, Wis./Muraski) struck out his fourth batter of the game to end the threat.
NU went ahead 5-0 in the bottom of the fourth inning, using five hits to plate the runs. Three straight infield singles to the Boilermaker shortstop plated two of the runs as Max Mann (Los Angeles, Calif./Brentwood), Antonio Mule (Lodi, N.J./Lodi), Aaron Newman (Palatine, Ill./Palatine) and Jake Owens (Stevens Point, Wis./Pacelli) all recorded RBI.
Purdue pulled to within one 5-4 with a grand slam home run off Muraski. A double, walk and a single loaded the bases, setting up the four-RBI home run.
The Wildcats put up two runs in the bottom of the fifth to extend their lead to 7-4 after five complete innings. Mann lofted a sacrifice fly and catcher Chad Noble (Rockwall, Texas/Rockwall) singled home a run for the Wildcats.
Purdue answered with a pair of runs in the top of the sixth inning. After an RBI double off Muraski, junior Bo Schultz (Dallas, Texas/Highland Park) came on in relief. After a wild pitch scored Purdue's second run and groundball out ended the inning with the score 7-6 NU.
The Wildcats put up another pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to extend their lead to 9-6. Goebbert hit a sacrifice fly and a bases-loaded walk plated the Wildcat runs.
Muraski picked up the win, pitching five and two-third innings to raise his record to 4-4 on the year. He stuck out six in the process. Schultz recorded his first collegiate save.
