Illinois State jumped out to an early 2-0 lead, but Purdue battled back to down the Redbirds 16-6 in non-conference baseball action Wednesday. Sophomore designated hitter Mike Saunches continued his hot hitting, going 2-for-5 with three RBI on the afternoon.
Ed Tolzien started things for the Redbirds, now 16-17 overall, when he hit a one out double in the first inning. Jared Dufault then followed with a run-scoring triple and scored when Saunches delivered an RBI single to give Illinois State an early 2-0 lead. The triple, the 15th of Dufaults career, moved him into a tie with Mike Prior for second place on the ISU career list.
The Boilermakers battled back to tie the score in their half of the inning off a Dave Blomberg double and a Nate Sickler sacrifice fly after Daniel Underwood led things off drawing a walk and advancing on a wild pitch.
Purdue plated two unearned, two-out runs in the second inning to take a 4-2 lead after a costly error by Jason Scherer that would have ended the inning but allowed two runners to score. The Redbirds battled back in the third inning to knot the score at 4-4. Scott Legan started the inning with a leadoff double to right. After a groundout and a Tolzien walk, Dufault singled to load the bases. Saunches then drove in both of the Illinois State runs in the frame with a single to center.
In the bottom half of the third, the Boilermakers loaded the bases with one out before Mike Duursma singled to center to score two runs and put Purdue ahead for good. After a Daniel Underwood single, Mitch Koester scored from third on a bases loaded wild pitch with two outs.
Purdues big inning came in the fourth, scoring nine runs on seven hits. The big blow came with two outs and the bases loaded. David Harrell belted a base-clearing double to center field as the Boilermakers scored five two-out runs in the inning and took a 16-4 lead.
A Steve Reyes lead off single and two Purdue errors to open the seventh helped the Redbirds cut into the deficit. Tolzien plated Reyes with a bases loaded sacrifice fly and Dufault hit a two-out single to center field to score Jim Chiappetta from second to cut the Purdue lead to 16-6.
The Redbirds had one final chance to cut into the Boilermaker lead in the ninth with two outs and the bases loaded, but Illinois State failed to push across any more runs and Purdue improved to 20-15 on the year with a 16-6 victory.
Dufault paced the Redbird offense, going 3-for-4 with two RBI and one run scored, while Saunches drove in three runs to up his team-best RBI total to 46.
Brian McDevitt pitched two and two-thirds in the start, striking out one and walking five. Illinois State pitchers combined to make six wild pitches on the day and three Illinois State errors helped Purdue score eight unearned runs.
Illinois State returns to action this weekend when it plays host to St. Xavier in a four-game series at Redbird Field. Action begins on Friday with a 7 p.m. first pitch.
