A Saturday hiccup couldn’t stop Iowa from unleashing on Purdue on Sunday. The Hawkeyes scored two runs in the first, two more in the third and then used a five-run fifth inning to race away from the Boilermakers en route to a 9-1 rubber game win.
The series win is Iowa’s fourth consecutive Big Ten series win and the Hawkeyes’ sixth series win over the past seven weekends. Iowa improved to 28-16 overall and 12-6 in Big Ten play with a pair of weeks remaining in the regular season.
Sophomore right-hander Ty Langenberg struck out seven Purdue batters over a career-long seven innings of work to pick up the Mother’s Day win from Duane Banks Field. The Urbandale, Iowa, native allowed just five hits and surrendered only the lone walk. In the process, Langenberg improved to 5-1 on the season.
It was a great day for the Iowa pitching staff in general. Redshirt junior righty Duncan Davitt came on in relief and pitched a pair of scoreless innings and struck out five of the final six Boilermaker batters. With the Hawkeye pitchers 12 strikeouts on the day, Iowa ran its season total to 507 to set a new single-season program record. The previous mark was 499 strikeouts by the 2018 squad.
Redshirt freshman Keaton Anthony got the scoring started for Iowa in the first with a two-run homer after Purdue plunked Iowa’s Peyton Williams. Then, in the third, redshirt junior Brendan Sher added a two-run double into left center to plate Anthony and redshirt senior Izaya Fullard.
The Hawkeyes officially broke things open in the fifth. Sher drew a bases-loaded walk and Williams scored on a wild pitch to give Iowa a 6-0 lead. Freshman Ben Wilmes followed with a two-run single and sophomore Cade Moss’ single to right made it 9-0 Hawkeyes.