Purdue Baseball Takes One at Iowa

Iowa’s superior pitching was mostly dominant this weekend. The Hawkeyes got great starts in two of the three games this weekend to handcuff the Purdue offense, but the Boilers were able to explode on Saturday for 10 runs and at least take a game on the road against a potential NCAA Tournament team.

Friday

Iowa 5, Purdue 2

Iowa’s Adam Mazur might be the best pitcher in the Big Ten and he showed why on Friday. He just missed a complete game shutout, as a two-out 2 RBI single from Troy Viola cut the Iowa lead to 5-2 in the ninth, but Ben Beutel then came in and got a strikeout to close the game for Iowa. Purdue managed only five hits on the night, two of which came in the ninth. Iowa got all five of their runs in the third off of CJ Backer, who otherwise did well. Ricky Castro did his best to keep close with 3 ¹⁄₃ scoreless innings of relief.

Saturday

Purdue 10, Iowa 6

Wyatt Wendell moved to 5-2 on the season as he gave up four runs in five innings of work. All four runs came in the fifth, three on a three-run home run by Keaton Anthony. Fortunately, Purdue was already up 6-0 at that point. Paul Toetz had a solo home run and CJ Valdez drove in two with a fourth inning single. All told, Valdez drove in five runs as he had an RBI double in the third and a clutch two-run single in the eighth. Toetz also drove in a pair of runs.

Sunday

Iowa 9, Purdue 1

Much like Friday, Iowa got a dominant outing from its starter and Purdue had no answers. Ty Langenberg struck out seven in seven innings of work and gave up only a solo home run in the seventh to Mike Bolton Jr. By then Purdue was already down 9-0 as Iowa got two in the first, two in the third, and five in the fifth. The Boilers got just five hits on the afternoon, two from Bolton.

Purdue now sits at 26-16 on the season in advance of a midweek home game against Butler on Tuesday night. The Boilers are 7-9 in Big Ten play and would have the final Big Ten Tournament slot if the season ended today. This coming week is a huge series at Northwestern in terms of Big Ten Tournament hopes. The Wildcats are currently ninth in the league, making next weekend’s trip to Evanston basically a loser leaves town match for the B1G Tournament. Considering that Purdue closes the season with top 25 Maryland it absolutely has to have a series win next week.