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IllustrateD volume 24, issue 5 95 f Over and over. "It's something I've enjoyed do- ing, probably more than other peo- ple," he said. "… Everybody goes to hit a lot, but I would hit and also my dad would hit me ground balls for- ever. It definitely paid off, because I was originally an outfielder when I was younger but I wanted to play infield and that helped me get to where I am now." And that's pretty good. Although Krieg's fielding percentage is .944, with nine errors this season, he's likely better than the numbers show, due in large part to his range. He's particularly good to his right with a strong arm able to throw out runners across the diamond. He's done so this year multiple times this season, including a particularly impressive throw from shallow left field to throw out Michigan's Cole Martin. "Defensively, he's been really solid," Schreiber said. "He's been fun to watch because he's gotten better defensively. He has a strong arm, so he's going to be able to make some plays not every shortstop can make. "(But) we just need him on base. For me, even if he gets on base due to four groundball errors. I don't care about the batting average. It comes down to runs scored or RBIs, you're either scoring them or knocking them in, and he's a guy who can definitely do both." j Close ones Hurting Boilermakers If Purdue could only im- prove in close games, then its Big Ten season might look significantly different. Through the Boilermak- ers' first five conference weekends, they had a 3-5 record in games decided by one run or in extra innings. Turn around a couple of those games, and Purdue would be in the middle of the pack in the league rather than to- ward the bottom. "It hurts a little bit more when you're that close to winning but lose," 16th- year coach Doug Schreiber said. "So there's going to be a little bit of frus- tration. And then you can look back and say 'If we would have done this or that,' but nobody wants to get blown out either; that hurts in a little bit of a dif- ferent way. "The close games do hurt, but from a confidence standpoint, you've got to feel like you're just as good as these teams we've been playing because we're right there." The Boilermakers were particular- ly hurt by one-run losses two to Penn State and two to Michigan State in back-to-back weekends in mid-April. They lost a 2-0 game against Ohio State in late April, following a thrilling extra-inning win the night before, los- ing out on a chance at a key conference victory. In each of the close losses, Purdue had chances late to turn the outcomes but couldn't get the job done. "It's just making plays in the begin- ning or middle of the game that we ha- ven't been making," shortstop Brandon Krieg said. "It could be a double play, a pitching error, or maybe people not get- ting timely hits earlier in the game. It might not turn out so close at the end if we executed earlier." After a rough start to the season — Purdue played the second-most difficult non-conference schedule in the country with games vs. ranked Rice and LSU, along with Tennessee and San Diego State — the Boilermakers took only one of three games through their first five Big Ten weekends. They'd lost seven straight rubber games, dating to May 2012. It left Purdue 11-29 overall, 5-10 in the Big Ten through late April. "The record is really bad, so I'm ob- viously going to think we're better," Schreiber said. "But we don't even re- ally think about the record at this point. That's something where we challenged ourselves with a non-conference sched- ule and trying to build a résumé for postseason. "We didn't get the job done on that part of it, so from that point forward the record isn't as important as playing sol- id baseball, which we have been doing for the most part but we've come up a little short." — Kyle Charters Purdue While his offense has come and gone at times, Krieg's defense is generally top-notch; as shortstop he's saved a few runs this season with his ability to stop grounders in the holes.