Bases-Loaded Opportunities Go by the Board in Game 1 Loss at USC

LOS ANGELES – Purdue Baseball effectively executed a game plan that saw the Boilermakers get into the bullpen while holding a 3-2 lead in the sixth inning, but No. 21 USC scored twice in the bottom of the frame and escaped a pair of bases-loaded jams to take the series opener 4-3 Friday.

Purdue (28-13, 15-7 Big Ten) loaded the bases with two outs in the eighth inning and one out in the top of the ninth but was unable to push the tying run across, seeing its seven-game win streak in Big Ten play come to an end.

The Trojans (32-11, 14-8 Big Ten) improved to 23-1 at home and 9-2 on Fridays behind staff ace Mason Edwards, the national leader in strikeouts (119) who fanned 12 and walked five while throwing 107 pitches through five innings. Friday marked the first time Edwards did not earn a victory in his six starts at home this season.

Aaron Manias led off the second inning with a long home run to right field, his sixth of the season and the first extra-base hit Edwards has conceded in 36 1/3 innings at home this year. Purdue went on to score twice more in the frame thanks to a pair of walks, an RBI single and a double steal with runners on the corners.

Cole Van Assen shined for the Boilermakers, retiring 13 consecutive batters after giving up a two-out, two-run homer in the first inning. He struck out five and did not issue a walk. Both of USC’s runs in the bottom of the sixth scored after he handed the ball off to the bullpen with one out and two runners aboard. The junior pitched into the sixth inning for a fifth straight start and eighth time in 11 outings this season.

Avery Moore and CJ Richmond connected for doubles to left field in each of the final two innings to put the potential tying run in scoring position. Moore hit a line drive off the top of the wall in the top of the eighth and Richmond led off the following frame with an opposite-field gapper as a pinch hitter. Purdue drew a pair of free passes to load the bases in both innings, but finished the night with 11 runners left on base in a game in which there were only a combined 10 hits.

Eli Anderson’s two-out RBI single in the second inning was the Boilermakers’ only timely hit of the night – the team’s lone knock with runners on base (1-for-16), runners in scoring position (1-for-8) and two outs (1-for-9). Zach Zychowski and Anderson teamed for the double steal and third run of the second inning. Zychowski broke for home when Edwards threw to first base as Anderson left the bag early hoping to draw the pitcher’s attention.

STREAKS EXTENDED
• Avery Moore: 16-game on-base; 11-game hit; 14-game on-base in Big Ten play; 8-game hit in Big Ten play
• Quincy Malbrough: 12-game on-base; 9-game on-base in Big Ten play
• Sam Flores: 14-game on-base in Big Ten play
• Eli Anderson: 7-game hit; 5-game hit in Big Ten
• CJ Richmond: 7-game on-base; 5-game on-base in Big Ten play
• Zach Zychowski: 7-game on-base in Big Ten play

Shortstop Westin Boyle impressed again with three excellent defensive plays on slow choppers and short-hop picks. He opened the game with such a play and made two more in the bottom of the third.

But it was an infield hit from the 9-hole hitter on a similar ground ball that put the leadoff man aboard for the Trojans in the sixth inning. After a stolen base, USC held the runner at third on a one-out bloop single into right field. Adrian Lopez got a good read on Trey Swiderski’s throw and took second base as it sailed over the head of Manias serving as the cutoff man near the pitcher’s mound. It was a key 90 feet in the frame. After an RBI ground out tied the game, Purdue intentionally walked cleanup hitter Kevin Takeuchi, who had homered off the videoboard in the first inning. With runners on the corners and another lefty-lefty matchup on display as Trevor Kester-Johnson faced Andrew Lamb, it was the Trojans that put the runner in motion off first base. As catcher Jackson Bessette went to pump fake a throw to second, the ball slipped out of his hand and rolled into no-man’s land on the left side of the infield, allowing Lopez to score the go-ahead run.

USC used four relievers to cover the final 12 outs of the game. In his first relief appearance of the season, Andrew Johnson retired the only batter he faced with the bases loaded in the eighth inning. Closer Adam Troy earned his Big Ten-leading 11th save by winning a full-count battle via an infield pop up for the second out of the ninth and striking out the next batter to end the game. Troy threw 29 pitches in the ninth, the most of any reliever for the Trojans.

The Boilermakers have lost consecutive games for just the second time this season, the previous occasion being in games 4 and 5 during the second week of the campaign.

The series continues Saturday at 5 p.m. ET. Sunday's series finale has also been moved up half an hour to 3:30 p.m. ET in an effort to avoid a travel curfew.