After a brief rain delay postponed the start of Tuesday’s intra-Indiana clash, the Notre Dame baseball team put their eight game winning streak on the line in West Lafayette against the Purdue Boilermakers.
Purdue came out of the delay hot, quickly jumping all over Notre Dame starter Dylan Heine. The graduate righthander would only complete one inning, while allowing five runs. He wasn’t helped by his defense, as a costly error resulted in only one of those runs being earned. The Boilers blasted two home runs in the inning, with shortstop Logan Sutter and first baseman Breck Nowik going yard.
The Notre Dame bullpen was up early, as junior reliever Xavier Hirsch entered to begin the second, but he didn’t fare much better than Heine. The righty conceded two runs, with designated hitter CJ Richmond and catcher Houston Russell each collecting RBIs. Notre Dame trailed 7-0 after going scoreless through two innings.
The Irish finally got on the board off sophomore southpaw Easton Storey in the third, when sophomore designated hitter Carson Tinney continued his hot streak with a home run. The shot to left field was Tinney’s 12th round-tripper on the season but only cut the margin to 7-1.
Purdue added one back when freshman lefthander Brady Koester entered in the bottom half of the fourth. Koester recorded just one out while walking three, throwing just three strikes in his 16 pitches. A wild pitch scored a runner left on by Hirsch to make it 8-1 Purdue after four.
Tinney drew the Irish back in the next frame, as his 13th blast of the season plated three and cut the lead in half to 8-4. With sophomore catcher Davis Johnson and senior outfielder DM Jefferson on the pond, Tinney unloaded on Maclane Finley’s first offering of the at bat to give Notre Dame some life.
Freshman right fielder Bino Watters pulled the Irish even closer in the sixth inning by driving home Johnson. The power hitting youngster lined a full count pitch back up the middle for his second hit of the day, which also moved his batting average to .305.
Despite continuing to load the bases with hits, Notre Dame couldn’t draw any closer as they left an astounding 14 runners on base throughout the nine innings. Purdue then added insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth off freshman Chase Van Ameyde to put the game away. Nowik scored on yet another Irish wild pitch, before Sutter continued beamed a two-RBI double to make matters worse at 11-5.
The Irish once again made some noise in their final at-bat in the top of the ninth off of reliable Purdue graduate closer Avery Coo. Cook has a sub-four ERA and a WHIP just above one, but the Notre Dame offense was able to load the bases. With Jefferson, freshman Noah Coy, and graduate Connor Hincks on base, Johnson popped up a 3-2 pitch to third base to close out the game.
Despite matching Purdue with ten hits, the Irish did not play a clean or complete game, and the Boilers took advantage. Runners left on base, wild pitches and a costly first inning error ended up being the difference, and Purdue took the Northern Indiana showdown 11-5.
Heine took the loss for Notre Dame, moving the midweek starter to 2-3 on the season. Despite only producing four innings of work, Storey earned the win for the Boilermakers to move to 3-1. Cook came out of the pen to work a six-out save for his eighth of the season. Purdue is now 26-18 on the year, but will need to capture the Big Ten Tournament crown to make the NCAA Tournament. Despite compiling a 7-14 record in the league, Purdue has been dominant in the non-conference at 19-4.
The loss ends Notre Dame’s eight game winning streak over the past two weeks, dropping their overall record to 24-18. At 12th-place in the ACC with a 10-14 mark, the Irish need to make a push over the final ten games of the season if they hope to make the program’s first NCAA Tournament since the 2022 College World Series appearance.
Following consecutive sweeps at Stanford and at home against California, the Irish will host the penultimate ACC series of the season this weekend at Frank Eck Stadium. Coming to town for the crucial three-game set are the Louisville Cardinals, who sit in seventh place with a 12-9 league record. Having qualified for just one NCAA Tournament since 2019, the Cardinals have put together a resurgent season with a 31-13 overall record which puts them in the top-25 on the national RPI.
Game one is set for a 7 p.m. first pitch on Thursday, with the broadcast on ACC Network. Games two and three will begin at 6:30 p.m. and 2 p.m., respectively, with streaming available for both on ACCNX.
