WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Sam Flores, Dylan Drake and Avery Moore all produced 1.000 OPS seasons as three of Purdue Baseball’s top offensive performers this season, earning All-Big Ten honors while being recognized among the league’s best at their positions.
Flores was honored as a second-team third baseman. Drake and Moore earned spots on the All-Big third team – Drake at second base and Moore in the outfield. They helped lead the Boilermakers to 35 regular-season wins, the program’s most since the 2012 Big Ten championship team was 41-12 entering the Big Ten Tournament.
Purdue had three hitters named All-Big Ten for the third time in the last decade, also producing three such honorees from the lineup in 2021 and 2024. Flores is the Boilers’ first All-Big Ten honoree at third base since future big leaguer Cameron Perkins was first-team All-Big Ten as the 3-hole hitter on the 2012 team.
Senior Aaron Manias was recognized as the program’s Big Ten Sportsmanship honoree. As a team leader and Academic All-American, Manias has started games at three different positions (DH, LF, 1B) this season while playing through a back injury and producing another 1.000 OPS season.
Flores has been the team’s top run producer and clutch hitter while starting every game at third base. He entered the Big Ten Tournament with 11 home runs, 16 doubles, 28 extra-base hits and 53 RBI – all team highs. He’s batting. 462 (30-for-65) with runners in scoring position, .124 points higher than Purdue’s impressive .338 team mark in run-scoring opportunities. The native Texan was even better in Big Ten play (17-for-34, .500 with RISP). With a runner on third and less than two outs, he plated that runner in 14 of his 15 opportunities and was a perfect 10 of 10 in league play. Flores also stole eight bases and performed well defensively.
Moore batted .418 in Big Ten play and posted a 1.270 OPS while reaching base safely in more than half of his plate appearances (48 of 94, .511 OBP). He did it despite being 2-for-20 on the season entering play on March 28. By batting .418 with 19 extra-base hits and 31 RBI over the final 28 games of the regular season, the senior enjoyed one of the finest second halves for a Purdue hitter this century. He also helped the Boilermakers keep winning even after losing four position players, including three outfielders, due to injury for much of April. Moore enjoyed the finest Senior Day game in Alexander Field history – 4-for-4 with four extra-base hits and four RBI – as Purdue completed its first sweep of rival Indiana since 2011. It highlighted a stretch in which he went 8-for-8 with seven extra-base hits and a hit by pitch across nine consecutive plate appearances from May 9-14.
Drake was among the Big Ten’s top offensive performers at second base, posting a .350/.435/.598 slash line along with 16 extra-base hits and 23 RBI in only 117 at-bats. Headlined by a go-ahead grand slam in the eighth inning of the series-opening comeback win at Maryland on March 13, 12 of those 16 extra-base hits came in Big Ten play. He went on to post a 10-game hit streak in March, registering multiple hits in six consecutive games during the surge; his average has not dipped below .340 since. A broken hamate bone in his wrist suffered during the April 11 win at Northwestern kept him out of the batter’s box for over a month, but he managed to extend an on-base streak to 10 consecutive games when he returned to the lineup last weekend.
The Boilermakers won six consecutive Big Ten series this season for the first time since 2012 and have enjoyed 11 winning weekends. Their fifth-place finish in the 17-team league represented the program’s best since taking second in 2018.
3 of Purdue's Hitters Earn All-Big Ten Honors
