HAMMOND, Ind. – The Purdue Northwest baseball team rode a strong performance from starting pitcher Joseph Sullivan and timely hitting from
Ethan Imlach (Mokena, Ill./Mount Carmel) to defeat Parkside 3-1 before splitting with the Rangers following 5-0 loss in Game 2 at Dowling Park.
Sullivan (4-1) threw six scoreless innings and gave up just two hits while walking three and striking out six to pick up his fourth win of the season. He's already doubled his win total from 2021.
Noah Burgh (Warsaw, Ind./Warsaw Community High School) tossed the final inning giving up just one run on one hit to go along with a pair of strikeouts for his first save of the season.
GAME 1: PURDUE NORTHWEST 3, PARKSIDE 1
After having put up 40 runs on Parkside on Saturday, a strong start was expected from the PNW (17-14, 6-10 GLIAC) offense and the fans that braved the conditions saw just that when
Luke Montgomery (Orland Park, Ill./St. Laurence High School) led off the bottom of the first with a walk and a stolen base before scoring on Imlach's double down the left-field line.
Unfortunately for the Pride, the run production fizzled out for the next five innings until Imlach pelted a 2-out pitch to right field for a triple to score
Anthony Fumagalli (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield North High School) and Montgomery for a 3-0 advantage.
The Rangers (3-26, 2-12 GLIAC) answered with a triple and a groundout to score their only run of the game off Burgh before the PNW reliever closed the book with a strikeout for the victory.
Imlach finished the game with two of the team's four hits including a double and a triple as well as driving in all three runs.
Ray Hilbrich (Schererville, Ind./Lake Central) and
Jack Gallagher (Bloomington, Ind./Bloomington North High School) collected the other hits for the Pride during the contest.
GAME 2: PARKSIDE 5, PURDUE NORTHWEST 0
Parkside's Noah Gerritson was a workhorse for the Rangers as he tossed a complete-game shutout against the Pride for just the team's third win of the season, and to keep within striking distance of the Pride in the GLIAC standings.
Gerritson used 137 pitches over the nine-inning affair to collect the six-hit shutout with six strikeouts and five walks.
PNW would put at least one runner in scoring position in each of the first five innings but simply could not string together enough hits to produce any runs.
The Pride's best chance to score during that stretch was in the bottom of the fourth trailing 5-0 when Hilbrich and
Alex Gasbarro (New Lenox, Ill./St. Laurence High School) led off the inning with back-to-back walks before a double play, a walk and a fly out ended the threat.
UP NEXT
PNW will travel to Detroit, Michigan to get ready for a weekend series at Wayne State. First pitch for Friday's single game will be at 2 p.m. CDT at Wayne State's Harwell Baseball Field.
FOLLOW THE PRIDE
For all the latest information on Purdue Northwest Baseball, please visit PNWathletics.com. For up-to-the-minute updates, follow the Pride (@pnwathletics / @PNW_Baseball) on Twitter. You can also find the Pride on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.
