Baseball Sweeps Purdue in Twinbill – Ohio State Buckeyes
4/18/1998 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 18, 1998
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – The Ohio State baseball team got a complete game from each of its starting pitchers en route to a doubleheader sweep of the Purdue Boilermakers at Lambert Field Saturday. Ohio State topped Purdue 7-1 in the first game and 8-3 in the second contest. The Buckeyes improve to 24-10 overall and 10-5 in the Big Ten. Purdue drops to 16-21 overall and 5-10 in the conference. OSU will try for a four-game sweep of the Boilermakers tomorrow at Lambert Field at 1 p.m. OSU starters Eric Thompson and Kurt Fullenkamp both pitched complete games for the Buckeyes. Ohio State got on the board early in the first game. Mark Carek singled and advanced to second on a balk by Purdue starting pitcher Andy Helmer. Carek scored two batters later when Jason Trott knocked a single to rightfield. The Boilermakers evened the score at one in their half of the third. Catcher Erik Frei took Thompson deep to left field for his sixth homerun of the year. Other than that mistake, however, Thompson mystified Boilermaker batters through the first four innings. The junior righthander surrendered only two hits through the first four frames and struck out six. Thompson picked up his fifth complete game of the year, allowing four hits and striking out nine. Solid execution led to a pair of Buckeye runs in the fifth. All-American Dan Seimetz led off the frame with a sizzling double to left-center, and Mike Kremblas followed with a bunt single moving Seimetz to third. Trott followed with a sacrifice fly to deep right, scoring Seimetz and moving Kremblas to third. A passed ball two pitches later allowed Kremblas to score, giving OSU a 3-1 lead. The Buckeyes were not done yet, however. With two out and no one on, Jason Turner and Matt Middleton smacked back-to-back singles. Chad Ehrnsberger, hitting in the ninth spot, then laced a ball through the left side of the infield for a two-out, two-run single. Ohio State blew the game open in its half of the sixth. Kremblas stung the Boilermakers with a bases-loaded single, scoring two. Game two started with a bang – or actually a bomb – for Ohio State. Lead-off hitter Mike Lockwood hit Purdue starter Laramie Sandquist’s second pitch off the scoreboard in right-center field for his team leading 11th homerun of the year. OSU proceeded to load the bases before Tom Durant delivered a two-run double to left-center field. Sandquist’s control problems came back to haunt him in the top of the second. After walking Lockwood and Carek, Seimetz hit a laser down the rightfield line to score two runs. Trott then singled to center, driving in Seimetz and giving OSU a 6-0 lead. OSU starter Kurt Fullenkamp bent but would not break through the first five innings. The Boilermakers had six baserunners in scoring position through five, but managed only two runs. Fullenkamp improved to a perfect 5-0 on the season and picked up his second complete game of the season. The Buckeyes picked up two more runs in the sixth. Lockwood scored when Kremblas reached on an error, and Carek came around to cross the plate on a single by Trott. Ohio State held a commanding 8-2 lead after six.
