5/16-Illinois baseball drops regular season finale

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Illinois made a valiant effort but Purdues offense was too much as the Boilers scored in seven of eight offensive innings on the way to a 12-8 Purdue victory on the final day of the regular season at Lambert Field. The Illini will be the No. 4 seed in next weeks Big Ten Tournament and will face fifth-seeded Michigan State on Wednesday at 11:05 a.m. (CT) at Huntington Park in Columbus, Ohio. The game will be live on the Big Ten Network. "We gave up too many runs early today," Illinois head coach Dan Hartleb said. "We did a nice job of fighting back at the plate, but we have to pitch better and be more solid defensively than we showed today. We have to do a better job of putting up zeroes." Purdue scored first with two runs in the bottom of the first despite not recording a hit. The leadoff man, Brandon Haveman, reached on a throwing error and Illini starter Bryan Roberts (Lisle, Ill.) hit left fielder Ben Wolgamot. A sacrifice bunt moved up the runners and a wild pitch on ball four to third baseman Dan Black allowed a run to score. The next hitter, DH Drew Madia, grounded to first and first baseman Matt Dittman (Libertyville, Ill.) tagged the bag before throwing to shortstop Brandon Wikoff (Peoria, Ill.), who tagged the runner between first and second for the third out. But the runner from third had already scored, putting the Boilers ahead, 2-0. Purdue added a run in the second on four hits, but the Illini defense kept a run off the board when right fielder Pete Cappetta (Lisle, Ill.) gunned down Purdue right fielder Alex Jaffee at the plate when he tried to score from second on a single, holding the Boiler lead to 3-0. The Boilermakers posted a four-run inning in the third after a two-run homer by Madia and a couple of RBI singles to go ahead 7-0. Illinois started to chip away at the margin in the fourth when Dittman reached on an errory by Purdue shortstop Nick Overmyer and moved to second on a single by Cappetta. Catcher Adam Davis (Bloomingdale, Ill.) grounded to second with an apparent double-play ball, but Overmyers relay to first was low, allowing Davis to reach and Dittman to score as the ball skipped away, making the score 7-1. Purdue tacked on a run in the fifth on a solo homer by Jaffee, but the Illini kept at the comeback trail with a three-run sixth inning. With one out, Dittman walked and Cappetta notched his third hit with a single through the left side. Davis singled up the middle to drive home Dittman and move Cappetta to third. On the play, the throw to third from center field was wild, allowing Cappetta to score and Davis to move all the way to third base. Second baseman Josh Parr (Chillicothe, Ill.) then rapped a high chopper to Overmyer at shortstop and legged it out for an RBI infield hit, cutting the Purdue lead to 8-4. But the Boilers got two of those runs back in the bottom of the sixth on three hits, including a two-run double by Jaffee, to make their lead 10-4. Illinois kept fighting with a run in the seventh after a one-out double by Wikoff, a single by third baseman Dominic Altobelli (Oak Forest, Ill.) through the left side and a sacrifice fly by DH Willie Argo (Davenport, Iowa), to cut the Purdue margin to 10-5. The Boilermakers added a run on an RBI triple in the bottom of the seventh to extend their lead to 11-5 and tacked on another run in the eighth after a leadoff double, a single and an RBI by catcher Eric Nielsen to go ahead 12-5. Illinois looked for the comeback in the ninth after a one-out walk by Argo, a wild pitch and a pinch-hit RBI single by Aaron Johnson to drive home Argo. Cappetta stepped up and cranked an 0-1 pitch down the left-field line for his second homer of the year, a two-run dinger, to bring the Illini within 12-8. Cappetta went 4-for-5 with a home run, two RBIs and two runs, and Wikoff was 3-for-5 with a double and a run. Altobelli was 2-for-5 and Parr went 2-for-5 with an RBI. On the weekend, Argo was 5-for-9 (.556) with two doubles, a team-high five RBIs and three runs, for a .778 slugging percentage and a .643 on-base percentage. Altobelli hit .500 (7-for-14) with two doubles, an RBI and three runs, and Cappetta hit .455 (5-for-11) with a homer, three RBIs and four runs. Parr hit .417 (5-for-12) with an RBI and a run, and Wikoff was 6-for-15 (.400) with a double and three runs. Up Next: Fourth-seeded Illinois will face fifth-seeded Michigan State in the opening game of the 2009 Big Ten Tournament at Huntington Park in Columbus, Ohio. The game will begin at 11:05 a.m. (CT) on Wednesday, May 20, and will be broadcast live on the Big Ten Network and WDWS AM-1400.