The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Purdue
Longhorns blank Purdue to sweep series
03.13.2005 | Baseball
AUSTIN, Texas -- Four Longhorns pitchers combined for nine shutout innings and the UT offense had each of its starters tally at least one hit as No. 1 Texas (21-1) posted an 8-0 shutout victory over Purdue (1-8) in front of 5,517 fans at Disch-Falk Field on Sunday, March 13. With the win, the Horns not only earned a three-game sweep of the Boilermakers, but also registered their sixth shutout of 2005 while extending their home winning streak to 22 games dating back to last season.
In the bottom of the first, Texas jumped out to an early 3-0 lead as the Horns loaded the bases with one out via two infield hits and a walk before Thomas Incaviglia (Monterey, Calif.) singled in a pair of runs and Chance Wheeless (Round Rock, Texas) brought in the third run with a sacrifice fly. Three frames later, the Horns sent seven men to the plate and had each of the first five batters come through with hits, including consecutive doubles from Wheeless and Calvin Beamon (Aurora, Colo.), to plate three more scores and up their lead to 6-0. UT starter Kyle McCulloch, meanwhile, limited the Boilermakers to four base hits over the first five frames and not more than one single in each frame.
Texas would then tack on a solo run in the fifth inning via an RBI-triple from Beamon with two outs, to make it 7-0. Then, in the seventh Incaviglia added another run as his groundout scored Seth Johnston (Boerne, Texas) who reached on a double and moved to third on a wild pitch, making it an 8-0 ballgame. Purdue's bats, meanwhile, were held to only five more hits over the final four frames by the trio of Buck Cody (Oklahoma City, Okla.), Clayton Stewart (Angleton, Texas) and J. Brent Cox (Bay City, Texas) to close out the shutout victory and give Texas a series sweep over the Boilermakers. While McCulloch earned his fourth victory of the year by fanning four over five innings, Purdue starter Mitch Pruemer incurred the loss.
The Longhorns' offense, which tallied 13 hits on the afternoon to have now registered 10 or more hits in 13 of 22 games this year, was headlined by Beamon, who notched his first career three-hit day with a 3-for-3 effort that included one run scored and two RBI, the duo of Nick Peoples (Round Rock, Texas) and Johnston, who extended their current hit streaks to 10 and six games, respectively, while each posting two hits and combining for two runs scored and one RBI, and Taylor Teagarden, who went 1-for-2 while scoring twice. Additionally, Incaviglia also extended his hit streak to six games in a game where he also drove in a pair of runs. On the other side of the ledger, Purdue was led by Neal Gorka, who went 3-for-4 on the day.
Up next, Texas kicks off Big 12 Conference action with the opener of a three-game series against No. 19 Baylor at Disch-Falk Field on Friday, March 18 at 6:15 p.m. Central. Of note, the final two games of that series with the Bears will be played at the Baylor Ballpark in Waco, Texas, on Saturday, March 19 and Sunday, March 20 at 6 and 1 p.m. Central, respectively.
