May 14, 2004
IOWA CITY – The Iowa offense scored runs in six of its eight at-bats and got another strong outing by starter Nathan Johnson to come away with the 9-2 victory over Purdue at Duane Banks Field on Friday night.
Johnson pitched his fifth complete game of the season, while allowing only two earned runs on seven hits. The senior righthander struck out seven Boilermaker batters and didn’t give up any free passes in his sixth win this season.
Iowa took advantage of a leadoff walk by Andy Lytle to take a 1-0 lead in the opening frame. After moving to second on a groundout, Nate Yoho hit an RBI single into the left centerfield gap to knock in Lytle. Yoho was erased on the base path trying to stretch his hit into a double.
The Hawkeyes plated three runs with two outs in the third to extend their lead to 4-0. L.J. Mims started things off with a bunt single and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Lytle. After a groundout, Yoho knocked in his second run of the game with a single through the right side. Kris Welker reached on a throwing error by third baseman Rob Brockel allowing Yoho to cross the plate from second and Jeff Gremley followed with an RBI single.
Purdue put its first run on the board in the top of the fourth. Left fielder Mitch Hilligoss led off the inning with a solo shot over the right field fence.
Iowa added single runs in each of the next three frames. In the fourth, the Hawkeyes used back-to-back doubles by Lytle and Jim Reid to plate a run. Gremley tripled and scored on a Jesse Brownell sacrifice fly in the sixth, before Lytle hit an RBI single up the middle to knock in Andy Cox in the sixth.
The Boilermakers threatened in the fifth inning when Johnson got into some trouble after hitting Eric Osborn to lead off the inning. The Boilermakers executed a perfect hit and run to put two runners on with nobody out before Johnson struck out Andy Dahl. Iowa’s righthander got out of the inning when he got Mitch Koester to ground into the pitcher’s best friend, a 6-4-3 double play.
Purdue plated its second run in the seventh. John Hunter singled and was pinch run for by Matt Bush. Bush made his way around the base paths to score the second Boilermaker run on a wild pitch to make the score 7-2.
In the bottom of the inning, the Hawkeyes pushed two runs across the plate on zero hits to extend their lead to 9-2. Reliever Jake Glick walked four batters in the inning, including a walk to Luis Andrulonis with the bases juiced. Pinch hitter Mike Best drove in the second run of the inning on a soft groundout to third base.
Lytle, Yoho and Gremley each tallied two hits, while seven different Hawkeyes recorded an RBI in the game.
Iowa and Purdue will play a doubleheader tomorrow afternoon beginning at 2 p.m.