Iowa baseball beats Purdue on windy day at Duane Banks Field

The Hawkeyes downed the Boilermakers, 9-1, Sunday. Iowa went 2-1 on its three-game weekend series with Purdue.

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Jerod Ringwald

Iowa starting pitcher Ty Langenberg throws a pitch during a baseball game between Iowa and Purdue at Duane Banks Field in Iowa City on Sunday, May 8, 2022. Langenberg threw seven complete innings while holding the Boilermakers to one run. The Hawkeyes defeated the Boilermakers, 9-1.

Austin Hanson, Sports Editor


Duane Banks Field was a destination for hitters on Sunday. With wind howling toward the venue’s left field wall, Iowa baseball put nine runs on the scoreboard in nine innings of action.

The Hawkeyes amassed nine hits on their way to beating the Purdue Boilermakers, 9-1, Sunday. Two of Iowa’s runs came from one swing of redshirt freshman right fielder Keaton Anthony’s bat in the first inning.

“It was a nice day to hit with the wind blowing out to left field,” Anthony said of his two-run homer. “It kinda got up in the jet stream.”

Purdue didn’t rain on Iowa’s hitting parade Sunday thanks, in part, to the efforts of Hawkeye pitcher Ty Langenberg. The right-handed sophomore starter tossed a career-long seven innings, racking up seven strikeouts. Across the 96 pitches he threw, Langenberg gave up five hits and one run.

“[Pitching coach Robin Lund] and I definitely had a great plan,” Langenberg said. “We knew, with the wind blowing out in that direction, a couple pitches like my slider and cutter weren’t necessarily going to be very effective. We knew I just had to stay lower in the zone … We just had to make sure I lived low in the zone today with the wind. That was part of my success.”

Big picture

Sunday’s victory gave Iowa a series win over Purdue. The Hawkeyes picked up a 5-2 win over the Boilermakers Friday. Purdue dealt Iowa a 10-6 loss Saturday.

The Hawkeyes have won five of the six Big Ten Conference series they’ve played this year. Iowa’s lone series loss against a league opponent came April 9-10. The Hawkeyes lost two of three contests to the Illinois Fighting Illini that weekend.

Up next

Iowa will head to East Lansing for a three-game series with Michigan State May 13-15. The Spartans currently sit in 12th place in the Big Ten standings with 21-13 overall and 6-11 conference records.

Iowa won’t play a midweek game ahead of its matchup with Michigan State. Since April 6, the Hawkeyes have been playing in such contests on a weekly basis.

“I don’t like it for the guys who could get pitches in,” Iowa head coach Rick Heller said. “We end up having to scrimmage all that time anyway. I’d much rather it be against another team. I hate having a week off with the warm weather, not being able to have those guys go compete against another team.”

“But we will use it. The guys will need it for their finals. Get those out of the way and hopefully we go play well on the road.”

All three of the Hawkeyes’ bouts with the Spartans will stream live on BTN+.