IU baseball takes down Purdue in Big Ten Tournament opener

It was worth the wait.

After being delayed several hours by weather in the Omaha area, Indiana jumped out to an 8-1 lead against rival Purdue and held on for an opening round win at the 2024 Big Ten Baseball Tournament.

The Hoosiers fell behind 1-0 when Purdue pushed across a run in the top of the 4th.

But Indiana erupted for eight runs — three in the bottom of the 5th inning, and five more in the bottom of the 6th — to give them an insurmountable advantage.

Jason Oliver hit a three-run home run over the right field wall to get things started for the Hoosiers.

B5 | Not getting this one 😁

Jolly goes big fly for the lead in Omaha!@jasen_oliver | #IUBase pic.twitter.com/1jpoLT5qbZ

— Indiana Baseball (@IndianaBase) May 21, 2024

Oliver wasn’t finished. He drove in another run in the decisive sixth inning, and went 3-of-4 on the afternoon, missing only a triple for the cycle.

Three other Hoosiers — Nick Mitchell, Carter Mathison and Brock Tibbitts — had multi-hit games.

Both teams had 13 hits for the game, but IU left just five on base, while Purdue stranded 11. Seven of Indiana’s hits came in their five-run 6th inning.

The Boilermakers hit three home runs over the final two innings to make things interesting, but IU held on for the 8-6 win at Charles Schwab Field.

Ty Bothwell started for Indiana and pitched three scoreless innings. He was relieved by Drew Buhr, who gave up two runs over four innings and was credited with the win.

The Hoosiers improved to 31-22-1 on the season, and kept their NCAA Tournament hopes alive in the process.

Indiana will return to action in Omaha on Thursday afternoon. They’ll face No. 7 seed Ohio State at 3 p.m. ET.