BEAZLEY, IRA HOMER IN WIN OVER PURDUE

Saturday, May 6

West Lafayette, Ind.

2 p.m. ET/1 p.m. CT

South Dakota State University

19-21

Purdue

22-23

South Dakota State

Purdue

Photo by: Dave Eggen/Inertia

5/6/2023 6:34:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Drew Beazley continued his hot hitting with a pair of extra-base hits and three runs batted in and Blake Kunz worked five solid innings on the mound to lead South Dakota State to a 7-5 victory at Purdue in nonconference baseball action Saturday afternoon at Alexander Field.

In evening the four-game series at a game apiece, the Jackrabbits improved to 19-21 overall. Purdue dropped to 22-23.

Like they did the night before, the Jackrabbits notched a four-run inning to take the early lead. Reece Anderson started the rally with a leadoff double and came around to score on Nic Nelson's triple off the fence in left-center field. After Nelson scored on an infield single by Cade Stuff, the Jackrabbits plated two more runs on the third and fourth extra-base hits of the inning against Purdue starter Jonathan Blackwell. A double to the left-field corner by Jess Bellows drove in Stuff and Beazley followed with the team's second triple of the inning off the fence in straightaway center field.

Kunz kept Purdue off the board until the fifth inning, when the Boilermakers made it a one-run game. Paul Toetz led off the frame with a home run and Connor Caskenette added a two-out run-scoring single moments later and Jake Parr followed with another single to drive in Couper Cornblum, but Beazley fired a strike home from right field to cut down Caskenette at the plate to end the inning.

Beazley gave the Jackrabbits so more breathing room with a two-run home run in the sixth inning and Luke Ira led off the seventh with his 12^th round-tripper of the year to push the SDSU lead to 7-3.

Caskenette drew Purdue within 7-4 with his second RBI single of the game in the home half of the seventh and the Boilermakers loaded the bases in the eighth before Ryan Bourassa came on in relief to end the threat with a groundout.

Purdue plated another run in the ninth after Bourassa issued a leadoff walk, but the Jackrabbit right-hander prevented further damage to lock down his sixth save of the season.

Kunz struck out five, walked two and scattered four hits en route to his first career victory. Alex Clemons added three strikeouts in 1 2/3 innings in a setup role.

Anderson led the Jackrabbits' seven-hit attack by recording his second three-hit game of the season. Beazley, Bellows and Stuff all tallied two hits each.

Caskenette (3-for-5) and Toetz (2-for-2) combined for five of Purdue's eight hits.

UP NEXT
Game 3 of the four-game series is set for 1 p.m. Eastern (noon Central) on Sunday.

NOTES

The Jackrabbits claimed their first victory over Purdue after the Boilermakers won the five previous matchups
Beazley extended his hitting streak to six games and is batting .524 (11-for-21) in that span
Beazley recorded an outfield assist for the second game in a row
Anderson is 5-for-10 in the series while hitting out of the leadoff spot
Bourassa moved into sole possession of fifth place in program history for career saves with 13, breaking a tie with Chris Halbur (12 saves from 2016-17)
Bourassa also took over fifth place in SDSU history for career strikeouts with 181 after entering the day tied with Layne Somsen (180 strikeouts from 2009-13)

-GoJacks.com-