A Look Back at Four Purdue Baseball Seniors

I was not able to be at senior day this year for Purdue baseball for the second year in a row. Last year I was covering the Big Ten Track and Field Championships, and this year I was in South Bend covering the NCAA Softball tournament. That does not mean that the four seniors shouldn’t get some love on this blog. Three of the four players graduating were members of the 2012 Purdue team that won the Big Ten regular season and tournament titles. I thought that I would talk about each senior and post a couple of pictures of each one as well. So here are the four players that played their last collegiate game last Saturday.

Brett Haan

Brett was the Sunday starter for most of this season. He transferred in to Purdue from junior college to play his last two seasons for the Boilers. Brett is a local kid who played three sports at Lafayette Central Catholic. He also helped the Knights win three straight state titles while he was there. Brett could come out of the bullpen, or hold down a weekend starter spot.

 Matt Gibbs

Matt is a player that was hard to me to figure out how to shoot at firsts. He looks like you would photograph him the conventional way, but something just never looked right. In the end I found a couple of angles that gave his motion a good look. Matt was a dependable arm coming out of the pen for Purdue. Both Matt and fellow senior Joe Eichmann logged a lot of innings out of the pen for Purdue. That is something that the team will miss next season. 

Joe Eichmann

Joe is a player that I loved to photograph. He has a great motion that can be photographed from many angles and still look good. Sometimes you have to really find a sweet spot for a pitcher. Joe’s sweet spot was anywhere. I had many chances over the years to photograph Joe as well because he was a dependable pitcher out of the pen for Coach Schreiber. He made over 50 appearances the last two years for Purdue, and generally shut down the opponents when he came in. Joe pitched in three games during the magical 2012 season, and did not give up an earned run in that time. Joe is a player that I will miss photographing for sure.

Brandon Krieg

Brandon also played on the 2012 team that made history at Purdue. I got to know his father over the last couple of years, and you can see how much his family enjoyed the success that he had at Purdue. Brandon was one of those players that gets dirty every game. You know the type that I mean. They do something that looks great on camera that involves a cloud of dust. Brandon provided many of those moments for me. You can see the dirty uniform in virtually every photo of him above. The way that he throws his body about during a game was fun to capture on camera. That will be missed.