Boston College
Purdue
Baseball Loses 1-0 Heartbreaker To Purdue
March 01, 2003 | Baseball
March 1, 2003
HOMESTEAD, Fla. - Despite a superb pitching effort by sophomore Kevin Shepard (Andover, Mass.), the baseball team dropped a gut-wrenching 1-0 decision Saturday, March 1 to Purdue at the Papa John's Homestead Challenge.
Purdue (2-1) scored the game-winning run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning. Nick McIntyre dumped a double down the left field line and scored when Daniel Underwood's hard shot got by sophomore third baseman Ryan Morgan (Weymouth, Mass.).
Shepard pitched 7.1 shutout innings of four-hit ball in which he struck out five batters and walked just two. He was lifted in the eighth, after the Boilermakers put runners on first and second with one out.
The Eagles drop to 0-4 on the year.
His replacement, junior Mike Gauthier (Salem, Mass.), did exactly what was asked of him, inducing Mitch Koester to ground into a 5-4-3 double play.
The BC bats were stymied by Scott Byrnes and Brent Coudron, who combined on a three-hit shutout and did not allow an Eagle baserunner to advance past second base.
The first real scoring threat in the game came in Purdue's half of the fifth. Underwood led off with a double and was sacrificed to third by Chad Reeves. Simon Klink tried a safety squeeze, but BC read it well as Shepard threw Klink out at first and held Underwood at third.
With two outs and Brad Kriner at the plate, Purdue tried some more trickery as Underwood attempted to steal home, but junior catcher Garrett Greer (Peabody, Mass.) tagged him out to end the inning.
The Boilermakers got a runner to third again in the sixth, but failed to capitalize. With two outs in the inning, Koester singled and got picked off trying to steal second, but Shepard's throw to first sailed high, allowing Koester to advance to third. Shepard then got Tyler Johnstone to ground to third, keeping the score knotted at 0-0.
Senior Matt Lederhos (Westwood, Mass.) collected two of Boston College's three hits while sophomore Ryan Morgan (Weymouth, Mass.) had the other.
BC left seven runners on base to Purdue's four.
The Eagles look to get into the win column Sunday, March 2, when they face St. Bonaventure at 7 p.m. in Bradenton, Fla.
