CHICAGO – A four-hit night from Luke Gaffney and quality start from Jordan Morales carried Purdue Baseball to a memorable 9-3 victory vs. Northwestern at Wrigley Field on Friday, the Boilermaker's eighth consecutive win in Big Ten Conference play.
Purdue (27-15, 9-4 Big Ten) led wire to wire and has not trailed in a Big Ten game since the top of the ninth of the April 6 victory at Rutgers, good for a streak of 45 consecutive innings. The eight-game win streak in conference play remains the program's longest since the 2018 team won nine in a row.
Gaffney singled in his final four at-bats, registering his second four-hit game of the season. He plated insurance runs in the eighth and ninth innings, finishing with three or more RBI in a game for the ninth time this year. The redshirt freshman has 67 hits and 59 RBI in 41 games and an identical .411 batting average in all games and Big Ten play.
Morales (6-4) worked six innings of two-run ball in his fifth quality start of the season, including his third in his last four outings. The lefthander retired eight of the final nine batters he faced. Purdue pitching put seven zeros on the board Friday, retiring 17 of Northwestern's final 19 batters. The Wildcats' only hit after the fourth inning was a solo homer in the bottom of the eighth. The Boilermakers had already opened up a 7-2 lead at that point.
The Boilermakers get the job done at Wrigley! 💪#B1GBaseball x @PurdueBaseball pic.twitter.com/rtxR6LK7rW
— Big Ten Baseball (@B1Gbaseball) April 27, 2024
Mike Bolton Jr. and Camden Gasser were all over the bases as Purdue's 1-2 combination at the top of the lineup. The speedsters reached base safely a combined six times and scored five of the Boilermakers' nine runs. Bolton led off the game with his 100th career walk, becoming the first Purdue player to reach the century mark since Harry Shipley in 2018. Bolton's two-out single ignited a four-run rally in the top of the eighth inning as the Boilermakers battered the NU bullpen to blow open a one-run affair.
Gasser reached base safely in four of his five plate appearances, raising his league-leading on-base percentage to .532. He plated Bolton with an RBI single in the first inning, recorded the first of three consecutive two-out hits in the top of the third and came around to score after drawing a free pass in each of the final two frames.
STREAKS EXTENDED
• Mike Bolton Jr. – 21-game on-base streak; 19-game on-base streak in Big Ten play (since 4/29/23); 7-game hit streak in Big Ten play
• Luke Gaffney – 13-game on-base streak in Big Ten play; 6-game hit streak in Big Ten play
• Jo Stevens – 10-game hit streak in Big Ten play; 16-game on-base streak in Big Ten play (since 5/18/23)
• Camden Gasser – Reached base safely multiple times in 8 consecutive games
• Connor Caskenette – 10-game on-base streak in Big Ten play; 6-game hit streak in Big Ten play
• Couper Cornblum – 10-game on-base streak in Big Ten play; 95 consecutive games started (since start of 2023)
Jo Stevens' two-out, two-run single capped the scoring in the top of the eighth as the sixth consecutive Boilermaker to reach base safely. Stevens now has a 10-game hit streak in Big Ten play after posting hit streaks of 10 and 12 games (in all games) earlier this season.
Fellow Australian Keenan Spence had an eventful night in right field. He made a leaping catch in front of the ivy-covered wall for the final out of the first inning. Two innings later a pop up into short right center found its way into the Bermuda Triangle and dropped for a hit. After initially losing the ball in the twilight, Spence recovered and easily threw the batter out at third base.
— Purdue Baseball (@PurdueBaseball) April 27, 2024The Gray Pins are also Pure #Purdue. #BoilerUp
End 4th: #Purdue 3, Northwestern 2 - Live on BTN
Live Stats: https://t.co/k7YxNAGPd7 pic.twitter.com/vD0k9bTn0Q
Avery Cook struck out four of the seven batters he faced over two innings of one-hit relief. CJ Backer closed out the victory with Purdue's fourth true 1-2-3 inning of the night.
Purdue has won 10 of the last 13 vs. Northwestern since 2018. The Boilermakers also handed NU its first loss in three games at Wrigley dating back to 2013.
The three-game weekend series shifts to Rocky and Berenice Miller Park in Evanston for the final two games. Saturday's middle game is slated for 2 p.m. ET.
