Wolverines Close Regular Season with Loss at Purdue

Sunday, May 18

West Lafayette, Ind.

1:00 PM

Michigan

29-25, 16-14

Purdue

29-26, 13-18

Michigan

Purdue

5/18/2003 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Daniel Underwood, Purdue's leading hitter, took to the mound and collected his second win of the week in addition to knocking in the winning run as Purdue closed out the 2003 regular season with a 7-2 win over Michigan Sunday afternoon (May 18) at Lambert Field.

Despite dropping three of four in the Purdue series, the Wolverines (29-25, 16-14 Big Ten) still finished in third place in the final Big Ten standings, percentage points ahead of Penn State (.533 to .531). Michigan will be the No. 3 seed in the Big Ten Tournament and will face No. 6 seed Indiana on Wednesday (May 21, 3:35 p.m. CDT) at Siebert Field in Minneapolis, Minn.

Purdue opened the scoring in the third inning when freshman shortstop Tyler Johnstone collected his second of four hits for the afternoon. He stole second base, moved to third on a sacrifice bunt and scored on a sacrifice fly by pitcher/DH Underwood, his team-leading 57th RBI of the season.

The Boilermakers scored two in the fourth and chased Wolverine starter Michael Penn (Columbus, Ohio/Worthington Christian HS) by scoring once more in the fifth. Penn dropped to 2-8 with the loss.

Junior catcher Jake Fox (Greenfield, Ind./Indianapolis Cathedral HS) had the only Michigan hit through five innings against Underwood, an infield single in the second inning. Fox stole second base and was the only Michigan runner to reach second until the sixth inning when senior CF Gino Lollio (Cape Coral, Fla./Mariner HS) singled and went to second on a wild pitch.

Michigan reached the scoreboard in the seventh inning as fifth-year senior 1B Mike Sokol (Sterling Heights, Mich./DeLaSalle HS) singled and scored in front of senior 2B Jordan Cantalamessa's (Castle Rock, Colo./Cherry Creek HS) ninth homer of the year. Sokol was the lone Wolverine with two hits as Purdue held a 16-5 hitting edge in the game.

N O T E S

Michigan edged out Penn State for third place in the final Big Ten standings, and Northwestern finished a percentage point ahead of Indiana for fifth. The Wolverines will face Indiana and Penn State will play Northwestern in the Big Ten Tournament first round on Wednesday (May 21) in Minneapolis. No. 1 seed Minnesota and No. 2 seed Ohio State receive first-round byes.

Final Big Ten Standings

 1. Minnesota 24-6 .800 2. Ohio State 20-12 .625 3. MICHIGAN 16-14 .533 4. Penn State 17-15 .531 5. Northwestern 15-14 .517 6. Indiana 16-15 .516 7. Purdue 13-18 .419 8. Illinois 12-19 .387 9. Michigan State 10-19 .345 10. Iowa 10-21 .323

Michigan's third-place finish in the Big Ten regular-season race is its best showing since 1997, when the Wolverines went 17-9 to win the title outright, and U-M's 16-14 league mark this year is its first winning record in conference play since going 15-13 in 1999.

Former Wolverine LHP Nick Alexander, co-captain of the 2001 Michigan team that reached the Big Ten Tournament championship game against Minnesota in Columbus, Ohio, was on hand during the weekend series at Purdue.

Returning to his home state of Indiana, Jake Fox went 6-for-14 in the series at Purdue with two doubles, a triple, a homer and eight RBI. Including the game at Eastern Michigan on Wednesday (May 14), he was 9-for-20 for the week with three doubles, a triple, three homers and 12 RBI.

Michigan's hitting leaders after 54 games include (100 plate appearances minimum): senior 3B Brock Koman at .364 (76-for-209), junior C Jake Fox (.362, 71-for-196), fifth-year senior 1B Mike Sokol (.351, 67-for-191), sophomore SS Nick Rudden (.340, 48-for-141) and senior OF Gino Lollio (.337, 70-for-208).

Contact: Jim Schneider (734) 763-4423