Purdue's Trio of 2-Run Homers Not Enough in Iowa Finale

DES MOINES, Iowa – Purdue Baseball hit a trio of two-run homers but Iowa’s bats were also alive in a big way as the Hawkeyes scored in six innings to take the series and regular-season finale 15-9 Saturday at Principal Park.

The Boilermakers (35-18, 18-12 Big Ten) will be the No. 5 seed at next week’s Big Ten Tournament and play 12-seed Michigan State on Tuesday at 10 a.m. ET in the opening game of the event. Iowa and Illinois will also be in that half of the bracket and Purdue will rematch with one of those teams in its second game of the tournament. The Boilers have not played MSU at the Big Ten Tournament since the second round of 2011. They won two of three in East Lansing the final weekend of March.

Purdue finished tied with Ohio State for fifth place in the final Big Ten standings and earned the No. 5 seed thanks to a tiebreaker with OSU earned via the three-game sweep of the Buckeyes in mid-April at Alexander Field. The Boilermakers are back in the Big Ten Tournament for the third time this decade and posted their best finish in the league standings since taking second in 2018. The teams that emerge from the top half of the double-elimination bracket will match up with top-seeded UCLA and No. 4 seed USC in the knockout round that begins Friday. The team that goes 2-0 draws USC and the team with one loss gets UCLA.

Aaron Manias, Jackson Bessette and Sergio DeCello all hit home runs to right field for Purdue on Saturday. The Hawkeyes (32-21, 15-15 Big Ten) also hit three home runs, including a second-inning grand slam, as part of 19-hit onslaught.

Manias’ home run cut the Boilermakers’ deficit to 6-4 in the top of the fourth, but Iowa responded with a 9-2 scoring surge over the fifth through eighth innings. Purdue did not go quietly with a three-run top of the ninth.

The Boilermakers left 12 runners on base while going just 3-for-11 with runners in scoring position. For the series, Purdue stranded 34 runners and was 0-for-7 with the bases loaded. Iowa had 10 more hits (20-for-47, .426) than the Boilers (10-for-37, .270) with runners in scoring position.

STREAKS EXTENDED
• Aaron Manias: 14-game on-base; 9-game hit in Big Ten play; 6-game hit overall
• Dylan Drake: 10-game on-base; 9-game on-base in Big Ten play
• Jackson Bessette: 10-game on-base; 6-game on-base in Big Ten play
• Avery Moore: 9-game hit; 7-game hit in Big Ten play
• Brandon Rogers: 6-game hit; 6-game hit in Big Ten play

SERIES LEADERS
• Aaron Manias: 6-for-11, 2B, 3B, HR, 3 RBI, 3 BB, HBP, 2 R; multiple hits in all 3 games
• Trey Swiderski: 6-for-13, 2B, RBI, 2 R; hit safely in all 3 games
• Brandon Rogers: 5-for-11, HR, 2 RBI, 3 BB, HBP, 3 R, SB; hit safely & drew a walk in all 3 games
• Avery Moore: 5-for-12, 2 2B, 3B, 3 RBI, 2 R; hit safely in all 3 games
• Jackson Bessette: 3-for-8, 2 2B, HR, 2 RBI, 2 BB, 2 HBP, 3 R; on-base & scored a run in all 3 games

Purdue scored first for the third day in a row and did not allow Iowa’s opener to complete the first inning after he issued three walks and gave up a two-out RBI infield single to Avery Moore.

But the Hawkeyes held the lead for much of the day after Miles Risley’s two-out grand slam in the bottom of the second put Iowa up 6-1. Risley also went deep in the sixth inning as the second Hawkeye outfielder to post a multi-homer game in the series. Joey Nerat, who went deep twice Thursday, was back in the lineup and burned Purdue again with three hits and five RBI from the 9-hole.

In consecutive innings, two different Boilermakers recorded an outfield assist from right field. After he misplayed a line drive that went to the wall, Moore recovered and teamed up with Westin Boyle to cut down Ben Swails at third base as the DH went for a triple. Ali Banks was in right field the following frame, playing the field for the first time since March 22 in his return from injury, and he threw out Iowa’s leadoff man Kooper Schulte at second base after Schulte’s wide turn on a two-out single.

Purdue used seven pitchers on the day, its most in a Big Ten game since an April 18 win vs. Ohio State. Jacob Boland retired three of the four batters he faced in the seventh inning, with only a catcher’s interference mixed in. Boland also made his return from injury, pitching for the first time since April 4 vs. Illinois.

Traveling directly to Omaha from Des Moines, Purdue will be in search of its first Big Ten Tournament victory since reaching the championship game with three consecutive wins in 2018. The Boilermakers dropped both of their games at the Big Ten Tournament in 2022 and 2024. The event was not held in 2020 and 2021; it expanded to a 12-team field last year.