After two innings of play on Sunday, Illinois (25-16, 12-9) was on the verge of its second sweep of the season.
The team entered the third inning leading the Purdue Boilermakers (25-18, 7-14) 3-1 after winning games one and two.
The Illini left the third inning trailing 15-3.
Nightmare inning
Redshirt senior right-hander Payton Hutchings jogged to the mound to begin his third inning of work.
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Hutchings struggled his way through the first inning but breezed through the second. The right-hander opened the third with a two-run lead courtesy of redshirt senior first baseman Drake Westcott’s two-run homer.
Purdue’s first three hitters all reached base against Hutchings, and head coach Dan Hartleb was quick with the hook. He called in redshirt junior lefty Reed Gannon to manage the no-out, bases-loaded situation.
The Boilermakers jumped all over the southpaw. Gannon faced four hitters, and all four reached base. He departed with the Illini trailing 6-3.
Junior left-hander Sam Reed was the next pitcher out of the pen. Reed managed to record a pair of outs, but they came at the cost of nine more runs.
Reed departed after the shellacking, and junior righty Mitch Dye took the mound. Dye stopped the bleeding there.
When the dust finally settled, Purdue plated 14 runs on 10 hits, only one of which was a home run.
Illinois was unable to overcome the sudden deficit and dropped the series finale 20-4.
Hall-elujah
Illinois cycled through four pitchers in the third inning Sunday before finally retiring Purdue. The day before, they’d only needed two for the entire game.
Sophomore left-hander Regan Hall continued his dominant run with a career-high eight innings of one-run ball. The southpaw has notched quality starts in three of his last four attempts and owns a 1.03 ERA over the same span.
Sophomore lefty Zach Bates relieved Hall, and he spun a perfect ninth to deliver Illinois the 3-1 victory. It was Bates’ second straight save. The night before, he’d put away Purdue in short order to secure a 6-4 win.
Westcott cements legacy
Westcott was named to the All-Big Ten Third Team last season and was projected to be a key piece of the Illinois offense this year.
Instead, the first baseman has struggled. He was hitting in the mid-.100s when he lost his starting spot to junior infielder Grant Ross in March.
Recently, Westcott has seemingly earned his spot back. He performed well in the series against Washington (25-21, 13-8) and went a perfect 4-4 at the plate against Indiana State (21-22).
Two of his hits against the Sycamores were home runs. They were his 39th and 40th with the Illini.
On Sunday against Purdue, he launched No. 41 in the second inning. That homer moved Westcott into sole possession of second place on the Illinois leaderboard.
Westcott is seven home runs behind Scott Spiezio’s program record (48) with just 11 games left this season.
@BrendanGallian
