WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. --Â Illinois baseball (31-17, 16-6) earned a crucial 5-4 victory at Purdue (33-20, 13-9) to open its final series of the regular season, Thursday night at Alexander Field.
Ryan Moerman went 2-for-4 with a run, home run and three RBI, slugging his 16th round-tripper of the season in the first inning. Camden Janik also had a multi-hit effort, going 3-for-4 with a double, two RBI and a walk.
Jack Crowder picked up with win for the Illini, working 5.2 innings, yielding up four runs, three earned, on five hits, allowing two walks and striking out seven. Ben Plumley turned in a dominant relief outing, tossing 2.1 shutout innings, allowing just one hit and punching out three. Joe Glassey worked a perfect ninth inning to earn his seventh save of the year.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Illinois jumped out to a 3-0 lead its first time up to bat when Moerman's three-run blast with two outs opened the scoring. The Orange and Blue pushed the lead to 5-0 in the second when Janik plated two runs with a double, also coming with two outs.
Purdue pushed a run across in the home half of the second and would later score two more in the fourth to make it 5-3.
Crowder held the Boilermakers scoreless in the fifth and got the first two outs in the sixth before giving way to Plumley, who inherited runners on the corners. The hosts were able to push one of those runners across to make it 5-4, but Plumley was able to get out of the inning with a strikeout and limit the damage.
Plumley then worked a quick seventh and twirled a 1-2-3 eighth, punctuated by back-to-back strikeouts to end the inning.
Glassey, facing the tying run with each batter, set Purdue down in order, striking out the final batter of the game looking to give Illinois the 5-4 win.
UP NEXT
The Fighting Illini will be back in action for game two of this series. First pitch from Alexander Field is set for 7 p.m. CT.
GAME NOTES
» Illinois can clinch at least a share of the 2024 Big Ten regular season title with either a win or a Nebraska loss tomorrow.
» Camden Janik went 3-for-4 with a double, two RBI and a walk.
    » Ninth multi-hit game in his last 15.
        » Ninth three-hit game of the season...leads team.
» Ryan Moerman went 2-for-4 with a run, home run and three RBI.
    » Leads the team with 16 home runs...tied for first in the Big Ten.
    » Ranks second on the team with 48 RBI.
» Connor Milton went 1-for-4 with a run.
    » Has reached base safely in 14-straight games.
    » Has hit safely in 14 of his last 16.
» Cal Hejza extended his on-base streak to 33 games.
» Jack Crowder improved to 6-1 on the season.
    » 5.2 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 7 SO
    » Struck out at least seven batters for the third time this season.
    » The Illini have won nine out of the last 10 games that he has started.
» Ben Plumley turned in one of his best outings of the season.
    » 2.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R/ER, 0 BB, 3 SO
    » Has not allowed a run in his last 4.0 IP (3 G)...has allowed just one hit and amassed seven strikeouts during that span.
» Joe Glassey picked up his second-straight save and seventh overall of the season.
    » Was the 13th save of his Illini career...needs one more to move into a tie for eighth all-time in program history.
» The Illini have won at least 31 games in a season for the first time since 2022.
» Illinois has won seven-straight games over Purdue, dating back to April 23, 2021.
    » The Illini have won four-straight in West Lafayette.
» Illinois pitchers faced 38 Purdue hitters in the game, allowing seven ground balls and nine fly balls while striking out 11.
» The Fighting Illini drew six walks from Purdue pitching.
This story created through content automation technology from Data Skrive.
