WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Logan Sutter and Breck Nowik hit two-run homers in a five-run first inning and Purdue Baseball rode its early lead to an 11-5 victory vs. Notre Dame on Tuesday at Alexander Field, ending the Fighting Irish's eight-game win streak.
The Boilermakers (26-18) posted their first home win vs. Notre Dame (24-18) since April 1995 as the visitors made their debut at Alexander Field and first appearance in West Lafayette since 1997.
Easton Storey struck out seven of the 17 batters he faced over four innings of one-run ball. Avery Cook closed out the victory with a six-out save, earning his eighth save of the season and 13th career, moving into a tie for fifth on the program's all-time leaderboard.
Cook accounted for the biggest out of the game with Purdue leading 8-5 in the eighth inning. The Irish had two aboard with no outs when Carson Tinney came to the plate as the tying run, already 3-for-3 on the night with home runs in his previous two at-bats. Cook struck out Tinney on three pitches.
The Boilermakers scored three times in the bottom of the eighth to double their lead, making the ninth inning much less dramatic than it could have been after ND loaded the bases with two outs. Tinney was on deck when the game ended.
Sutter capped his 3-for-4, four-RBI night with a two-out, two-run double in the eighth inning. He dropped a duck snort into the Bermuda Triangle down the right field line, with first baseman Parker Brzustewicz unable to make the catch while straddling the foul line. It was Sutter's 20th double of the season, making him the first Boilermaker to reach that benchmark since Big Ten Player of the Year Kevin Plawecki in 2012. Sutter is just one two-bagger shy of Purdue's single-season record that has stood since 2001.
TUESDAY NOTABLES
• Logan Sutter's home run was his 13th of the season, matching the most by a Boilermaker in the BBCOR bat era (since 2011).
• Breck Nowik homered for the second game in a row, joining Sergio DeCello, CJ Richmond, Keenan Spence as Boilermakers to go deep in consecutive games this season.
• Sutter posted multiple extra-base hits in a game for the eighth time this season. He recorded at least four RBI for the fifth time. The first baseman continues to lead the team with 20 multi-hit games.
• Purdue raced out a 7-0 lead after two innings. The Boilers have scored at least seven unanswered runs in four of their last six games since April 20.
• Easton Storey has 10 strikeouts over six innings of five-hit ball (conceding just one earned) since returning from the shoulder soreness that sidelined him for the first three weeks of the month. He struck out ND's 6-7-8 hitters in order in his final inning. The lefty also escaped a bases-loaded jam in the first inning with a strikeout.
• The game was played in front of a season-high crowd of 2,319 fans at Alexander Field.
There were three excellent defensive plays in the game. Notre Dame had the tying run at the plate in the eighth inning when Albert Choi made a sliding catch along the side wall in foul territory after a long run from this positioning towards left center, retiring the ND cleanup hitter for the final out of the frame.
Brandon Anderson made a diving stop at third base to take away a leadoff single in the top of the sixth, an inning in which the Irish scored their final run of the night after the top of the order produced a single-walk-single sequence with two outs.
Notre Dame center fielder DM Jefferson robbed CJ Richmond with a diving catch on a line drive in the second inning. Purdue had runners on the corners at the time and it turned into a sacrifice fly. Both runners ended up scoring in the frame when Houston Russell and Sutter successfully executed a walk-off play with two outs and two strikes on batter Aaron Manias.
Camden Gasser scored three times for the third time in the last six games. He singled twice and also reached base on an error to ignite the five-run first inning. Manias' two-out RBI single in the bottom of the first extended the inning to Nowik and turned into a double when Manias – anticipating a throw home to try to cut down Richmond – just kept running as the ND right fielder was unable to make an accurate throw into second base instead. Manias is riding a six-game on-base streak.
Isaac Milburn and Austin Klug served as the bridge between Storey and Cook, teaming up for three innings of one-run relief after the visitors grabbed the momentum on Tinney's three-run homer. Milburn accounted for five out and Klug got four, including posting a zero in the seventh after the Irish had cut Purdue's lead to 8-5.
The Boilermakers are back in action Friday when they open a three-game Big Ten Conference series vs. Northwestern. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. ET.
The Boilermakers (26-18) posted their first home win vs. Notre Dame (24-18) since April 1995 as the visitors made their debut at Alexander Field and first appearance in West Lafayette since 1997.
Easton Storey struck out seven of the 17 batters he faced over four innings of one-run ball. Avery Cook closed out the victory with a six-out save, earning his eighth save of the season and 13th career, moving into a tie for fifth on the program's all-time leaderboard.
Cook accounted for the biggest out of the game with Purdue leading 8-5 in the eighth inning. The Irish had two aboard with no outs when Carson Tinney came to the plate as the tying run, already 3-for-3 on the night with home runs in his previous two at-bats. Cook struck out Tinney on three pitches.
The Boilermakers scored three times in the bottom of the eighth to double their lead, making the ninth inning much less dramatic than it could have been after ND loaded the bases with two outs. Tinney was on deck when the game ended.
Sutter capped his 3-for-4, four-RBI night with a two-out, two-run double in the eighth inning. He dropped a duck snort into the Bermuda Triangle down the right field line, with first baseman Parker Brzustewicz unable to make the catch while straddling the foul line. It was Sutter's 20th double of the season, making him the first Boilermaker to reach that benchmark since Big Ten Player of the Year Kevin Plawecki in 2012. Sutter is just one two-bagger shy of Purdue's single-season record that has stood since 2001.
TUESDAY NOTABLES
• Logan Sutter's home run was his 13th of the season, matching the most by a Boilermaker in the BBCOR bat era (since 2011).
• Breck Nowik homered for the second game in a row, joining Sergio DeCello, CJ Richmond, Keenan Spence as Boilermakers to go deep in consecutive games this season.
• Sutter posted multiple extra-base hits in a game for the eighth time this season. He recorded at least four RBI for the fifth time. The first baseman continues to lead the team with 20 multi-hit games.
• Purdue raced out a 7-0 lead after two innings. The Boilers have scored at least seven unanswered runs in four of their last six games since April 20.
• Easton Storey has 10 strikeouts over six innings of five-hit ball (conceding just one earned) since returning from the shoulder soreness that sidelined him for the first three weeks of the month. He struck out ND's 6-7-8 hitters in order in his final inning. The lefty also escaped a bases-loaded jam in the first inning with a strikeout.
• The game was played in front of a season-high crowd of 2,319 fans at Alexander Field.
There were three excellent defensive plays in the game. Notre Dame had the tying run at the plate in the eighth inning when Albert Choi made a sliding catch along the side wall in foul territory after a long run from this positioning towards left center, retiring the ND cleanup hitter for the final out of the frame.
Brandon Anderson made a diving stop at third base to take away a leadoff single in the top of the sixth, an inning in which the Irish scored their final run of the night after the top of the order produced a single-walk-single sequence with two outs.
Notre Dame center fielder DM Jefferson robbed CJ Richmond with a diving catch on a line drive in the second inning. Purdue had runners on the corners at the time and it turned into a sacrifice fly. Both runners ended up scoring in the frame when Houston Russell and Sutter successfully executed a walk-off play with two outs and two strikes on batter Aaron Manias.
Camden Gasser scored three times for the third time in the last six games. He singled twice and also reached base on an error to ignite the five-run first inning. Manias' two-out RBI single in the bottom of the first extended the inning to Nowik and turned into a double when Manias – anticipating a throw home to try to cut down Richmond – just kept running as the ND right fielder was unable to make an accurate throw into second base instead. Manias is riding a six-game on-base streak.
Isaac Milburn and Austin Klug served as the bridge between Storey and Cook, teaming up for three innings of one-run relief after the visitors grabbed the momentum on Tinney's three-run homer. Milburn accounted for five out and Klug got four, including posting a zero in the seventh after the Irish had cut Purdue's lead to 8-5.
The Boilermakers are back in action Friday when they open a three-game Big Ten Conference series vs. Northwestern. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. ET.