By Hawk Fanatic

Baseball is a fickle sport where so little seems certain besides its unpredictability.

The Iowa baseball team, just one week after scoring 39 runs and recording 52 hits in a three-game sweep over Purdue, fell to the Boilermakers 8-1 in a Big Ten Tournament elimination game on Thursday at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Nebraska.

Iowa finished the season 33-23, and was 1-2 in the Big Ten Tournament, defeating Illinois 10-6 on Tuesday and losing to Michigan State 4-3 on Wednesday.

The Hawkeyes were surging heading into the Big Ten Tournament after having won four of their last five series in the regular season.

And they kept surging with the come-from-behind win over Illinois, but couldn’t sustain it before ultimately being eliminated.

Iowa senior Miles Risley reached base in the fourth inning on a grounder in which he avoided being tagged on the throw to first base. He then stole second base – his 16th steal of the season on 16 tries – before scoring the game’s first run on a RBI single by Jaixen Frost.

Purdue answered back quickly, however, scoring three runs in the bottom of the fourth, which started with Purdue’s first two batters reaching base on walks and then scoring on a triple.

Iowa had runners on second and third in the top of the fifth with two outs, and with All-Big Ten second baseman Gable Mitchell at the plate.

Purdue made a pitching change as starter Austin Klug, who had allowed just three hits, was replaced by southpaw Jarvis Evans, creating a lefty versus lefty matchup.

Mitchell then swung at the first pitch and grounded out to first base to end the threat.

Purdue loaded the bases with one out in the fifth inning with two walks and a hit batter, but it resulted in no runs as Iowa quelled the threat with a 4-6-3 double play.

The Boilermakers expanded their lead to 6-1 in the sixth inning and would score two more runs, while Iowa was held scoreless the rest of the way, collecting just six hits.

Purdue advances to quarterfinals where it will face top-ranked UCLA on Friday.

Iowa, on the other hand, has played its last game, closing a season that was in serious trouble after the Hawkeyes were swept by USC in April, falling to 5-10 in conference play.

Iowa would go on to win 10 of its final 15 Big Ten games to finish 15-15 in conference play.

“It says a lot about the group of guys we have,” said Iowa head coach Rick Heller “After USC, it looked like we were dead in the water without a chance to make the tournament, but we found a way to right the ship and win a bunch of games to get here and even end up with a decent seed in a year when the league is really good.

“I’m really proud because there were plenty of times we could have packed it in, and they didn’t. They found ways. It wasn’t traditional a lot of the time. We pieced it together, and our offense did a great job carrying us. This was one of the best defensive teams I’ve ever coached. Just a great group of older players that wouldn’t let the program go backward, and that says a lot about those guys.”

Senior Kellen Strohmeyer led the Hawkeyes offensively with a 3-for-3 day and he also reached base via a walk.

Fellow senior Caleb Wulf als0 finished the season with 89 hits to stand alone at No. 2 all-time in program history.

Editor’s note: hawkeyesports.com contributed to this article.