Wright, Trzos Lead Michigan Past Purdue in 2002 Finale

Sunday, May 19

Ann Arbor, Mich.

1:00 PM

Michigan

21-32, 14-17

Purdue

24-32, 13-19

Purdue

Michigan

Wright, Trzos Lead Michigan Past Purdue in 2002 Finale

5/19/2002 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Senior/junior 1B Nate Wright's (Tinley Park, Ill./Andrew HS) two-out, two-run single snapped a 3-3 tie in the sixth inning and led the University of Michigan baseball team to a 7-4 win over Purdue on Sunday (May 19) in the final game of the season at Ray Fisher Stadium. Senior LHP Jeff Trzos (Farmington Hills, Mich./North Farmington HS) closed out his career with a nine-inning, complete-game 10-hitter with nine strikeouts for his second win of the year (2-5).

The Wolverines (21-32, 14-17 Big Ten) entered the contest with a slim chance of making the six-team Big Ten Tournament, needing to beat Purdue and have both Iowa (at home with Illinois) and Northwestern (at home with Indiana) lose. Michigan got the job done, but Iowa topped Illinois 5-2 and Northwestern, after trailing 6-0, bounced back to win 9-6, leaving Michigan on the outside in eighth. Despite starting the weekend in third place, Illinois lost three in a row to close the season and finished in a tie for sixth with Northwestern, but the Wildcats earned the final playoff position in a tiebreaker with the Illini.

Purdue (24-32, 13-19 Big Ten) grabbed a 2-0 lead in Sunday's finale as 2B Nick McIntyre doubled and scored on a Kris Luce sacrifice fly in the first inning and McIntyre drove in the second run with his own sac fly in the third inning off Trzos.

Purdue RHP Josh Herman retired the first six Wolverines, but Wright opened the third inning with a slow roller for a single and he advanced to second base on a throwing error. Wright advance to third on a wild pitch and scored on a single by sophomore 3B Brandon Jominy (Coral Springs, Fla./Westminster Academy). Freshman 2B Nick Rudden (Englewood, Colo./Cherry Creek HS) moved Jominy to second base with a sacrifice bunt and freshman RF Matt Butler (Glendale Heights, Ill./Driscoll Catholic HS) and junior CF Blake Rutkowski (Glenview, Ill./Glenbrook South HS) hit back-to-back doubles to give Michigan a 3-2 lead.

Purdue tied the game 3-3 in the fifth on three consecutive singles, but Trzos picked up a strikeout and a flyout to end the threat.

Wright's game-winning single came in the sixth inning after sophomore LF Brandon Roberts (Arlington, Texas/Martin HS) singled and was forced out by sophomore catcher Jake Fox (Greenfield, Ind./Indianapolis Cathedral HS). Senior/junior co-captain DH Mike Sokol (Sterling Heights, Mich./DeLaSalle HS) singled to right, and aggressive baserunning by Fox drew a throw to third base and allowed Sokol to take second.

Wright dropped a single to center for the two-run lead at 5-3, which loomed larger when Purdue's Adam Fazio homered to lead off the seventh inning cutting the margin to 5-4. Trzos allowed just one hit after the homer to collect the win.

The Wolverines added insurance in the eighth inning as junior SS Brock Koman (Pueblo, Colo./South HS) reached on an error and was forced by Roberts. Fox followed with a line drive homer for the final two runs and a three-run lead heading to the ninth inning.

Purdue's Simon Klink doubled leading off the ninth, but Trzos retired the next two batters on foul pops and got the final out on a grounder to Koman at short.

The Wolverines opened the season taking three of four at home from Iowa and closed with three wins against Purdue in Ray Fisher Stadium as the good news is Michigan was 13-7 at home in overall action but had 18 of the scheduled 32 Big Ten games on the road. The Wolverines set a school record for Big Ten baseball games played in a season (31) and Purdue was the only team to play all 32 games in the new eight-weekend format.

N O T E S

Four Wolverine seniors, all pitchers, closed out their Ray Fisher Stadium careers in the Purdue series -- Bobby Korecky (Saline, Mich./Saline HS), Kirk Taylor (Farmington Hills, Mich./North Farmington HS), Jeff Trzos (Farmington Hills, Mich./North Farmington HS) and fifth-year senior Joe Young (Detroit, Mich./Bishop Gallagher HS).

Catcher Jake Fox was 7-for-14 (.500) in the Purdue series with three home runs to finish with the team lead with 11 homers and second with 35 RBI.

Michigan's Baseball Banquet hosted by the DugOut Club will be in the Schembechler Hall Commons on Monday, May 21.

Michigan's final hitting leaders after 53 games (38 at-bat minimum) include: junior SS Brock Koman (.361, 69-for-191), sophomore C Jake Fox (.331, 46-for-139), senior/junior DH Mike Sokol (.325, 51-for-157), junior OF Gino Lollio (Cape Coral, Fla./Mariner HS) at .297 (44-for-148), sophomore LF Brandon Roberts (.295, 51-for-173) and senior RHP/2B/DH/LF Bobby Korecky (.288, 15-for-52).

Michigan's final Big Ten-only hitting leaders (31 games) include: SS Brock Koman at .365 (38-for-104), DH/1B Mike Sokol at .360 (27-for-75), C Jake Fox at .333 (28-for-84), OF Matt Butler at .315 (28-for-89) and OF Brandon Roberts at .284 (31-for-109).

Final Big Ten Standings

 1. Minnesota 18-10 .642 2. Ohio State 18-11 .621 3. Michigan State 16-12 .571 4. Indiana 15-14 .517 5. Iowa 15-16 .484 6. Northwestern 14-15 .483 Illinois 14-15 .483 8. MICHIGAN 14-17 .452 9. Purdue 13-19 .406 10. Penn State 11-19 .367

Sunday Games
Michigan 7, Purdue 4
Iowa 5, Illinois 2
Norrthwestern 9, Indiana 6
Michigan State 16, Penn State 3
Ohio State 9-5, Minnesota 2-8

Contact: Jim Schneider (734) 763-4423