Area players helping Purdue baseball win

• Reprints

Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM

Griffith grad Ryan Bridges improved his batting average to .338 by going 3-for-5 in a weekend series at Minnesota.

Two of the Purdue junior’s hits were doubles, giving him nine in 21 starts. He also leads the Boilers in sacrifice flies with four.

Left-handed pitchers Blake Moscarello (Crown Point) and Mike Sudbury (Munster) are coming out of the bullpen for the Boilermakers, who are 17-10.

Moscarello has struck out 21 in 24.2 innings. He has one save in 11 appearances. Sudbury owns a 4.76 ERA in five outings.

PNC’s Shane Prance (Portage) followed up a six-inning no-hitter with 6.1 strong innings in a 5-4 victory. Coming off national pitcher of the week honors, the 6-3 junior struck out five in a no-decision effort against Roosevelt.

Opponents were batting just .231 against him in his first six appearances. He owns a 4.28 ERA.

Through 25 games catcher Ryan Frost (St. John/Lake Central) is batting a robust .458. He also leads the Panthers in RBI with 25.

Dustin DeMuth (LaPorte) rapped four hits in Indiana’s 12-5 victory at Michigan. The freshman shortstop boosted his team-leading average to. 385 with his 14th multi-hit game of the spring. Using his speed as well as his bat, DeMuth has legged out 11 infield hits.

The Hoosiers improved to 18-9 by winning two of three against the Wolverines in their opening Big Ten series.

Taylor is off to a 16-11 (4-0, Mid-Central Conference) start behind the bat of Ian Nielsen (LaPorte). He’s batting .375 and leads the Trojans in doubles (11), home runs (7) and RBI (30).

Chicago State’s Carpen brothers continue to sparkle. In a three-game series with Savannah State, Michael Carpen (Clark/Whiting) rapped eight hits in 13 at-bats. He plays second base. His brother, Albert, pitched a complete-game 15-2 victory over Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Jon Carpen drove in six runs with three hits in the rout. The junior infielder also collected five RBI with three hits in a 10-9 loss.

Recently, Gregory Day (East Chicago) beat Akron 4-1, going the distance for his first college victory. The Cougar pitcher was named the Great West Conference player of the week.

Track and field

St. Joseph’s Alexis DeJean was a triple winner in field events at the Puma Invitational. She heaved the shot 43-051/4, the discus in 141-10 and the hammer throw in 170-10. Teammate Melissa Buche (Lowell) ruled the high jump by clearing 5-6.

Softball

Jen Kosinski (Schererville/Lake Central) leads DePauw with eight doubles and 24 RBI. The junior third baseman/catcher is batting .436. The Tigers own a 16-2-1 record.

Scholar athletes

Four Northwest Indiana athletes who have received Academic All-Big Ten honors in winter sports are Michigan co-captain Zack Novak (Chesterton) and Purdue’s E’Twaun Moore (East Chicago) in basketball and Purdue’s Albert Miller (Chesterton) and Jimmy Page (Crown Point) in swimming/diving.

Loyola’s Lisa Samplawski (Portage) made the Horizon League academic honor roll in basketball. The reserve guard averaged 3.6 points, made four starts.

Contact John Mutka at jmutkapt@gmail.com.