Indiana cannot hold onto a 7-run lead, and wastes another quality start from ace Tony Neubeck
By Carl James @jovian34 May 9th, 2026
Indiana Hoosiers 9, Purdue Boilermakers 11
Inning by inning details in the Live Game Blog | Box Score
In an exaggeration of a pattern seen throughout this season, Indiana baseball took a 7-run lead into the 7th inning stretch and Purdue didn’t even need to bat in the ninth to secure an 11-9 comeback win.
For six and a half innings, staff ace Tony Neubeck was outstanding, holding Purdue’s veteran bats to just two runs on four hits while stricking out eight. His curveball in particular had a ton of vertical movement.
Hoosier bats were very effective, putting up 8 earned runs on Purdue’s Friday starter Cole Van Assen. In return from injury Caleb Koskie had a 2 hit day and Brayden Ricketts hit a pinch hit, 3-run, opposite field home run off the glove of the left fielder, capping a 6-run fourth inning.
Neubeck showed resilence after a pitch draining 2-run fourth inning to come back and complete the sixth inning just under 100 pitches. It had some people thinking, would head coach Jeff Mercer and pitching coach Matt Myers try to get greedy? They could either extend Neubeck one more inning or throw a less reliable bullpen arm to try to win the Friday game and potentially have key bullets available to try to steal a series win in one of the two remaining contests.
With a season full of meltdown memories, the coaches elected to go all-in on winning Friday, tossing Jackson Yarberry whose been an extended option, and even a starter. It didn’t matter. Yarberry gave up 4 runs collecting only four outs. The coaching staff doubled down, putting in their top relief option, Gavin Seebold, coming off what IU hoped was a rare rough outing the prior week. Seebold’s issues from Evanston returned and Purdue lit up the graduate student.
Seebold had a chance to escape the 7th with a lead, but with a chance to cut down the lead runner on a softly hit ball the pitcher fielded, he took the riskier route instead of getting the sure out. This loaded the bases with just one out. A groundout the next at-bat therefore didn’t end the inning and two subsequent huge extra base hits put Purdue ahead. Seebold could not get that third out, and Mercer was forced to use a third arm in the inning, Anthony Gubitosi, to get the final out. Indiana hitters went quietly in the 9th and Purdue, with a much deeper bullpen, is poised to get the sweep they need to advance their RPI ranking toward earning their first NCAA Regional berth since 2018.
What can Indiana do to play spoiler? Not one thing they have done consistently this season. They have been dreadful on Saturdays and Sundays. Even a single win will require the Hoosier bats to score in bunches against a deep pitching staff on the road and then a group of pitchers, minus the injured Ivan Mastalski, are going to have to come up with 27 outs without giving up a lot of runs. It’s not impossible, but the sample size is big enough that objectively Purdue should be favored to sweep their rival. Indiana will have to show a bounce-back gear that franly just hasn’t been there this season.