Iowa baseball head coach Rick Heller and catcher Max Burt discuss Burt's sophomore breakout and recent hot streak at the plate during a postgame interview at Duane Banks Field in Iowa City on Friday, May 1. (Ethan Petrik/Globe-Gazette)
OMAHA — No. 5 seed Purdue eliminated No. 8 seed Iowa from the 2026 Big Ten baseball tournament with an 8-1 win on Thursday.
At No. 69 in the RPI, the Hawkeyes are unlikely to receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, ending their season with a 33-23 overall record and 15-15 mark in conference play.
Iowa head coach Rick Heller walks into the dugout after defeating Rutgers, 4-3, in a Big Ten Baseball tournament game at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha on Wednesday, May 21, 2025.
NIKOS FRAZIER, THE WORLD-HERALD
Head coach Rick Heller praised his team's resiliency in bouncing back in the final month of the season following the loss.
“It says a lot about the group of guys we have,” Heller said. “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.”
Iowa opened the scoring in Thursday's loss, scoring one run in the top of the fourth inning on a Jaixen Frost single, which scored Miles Risley from second.
The Boilermakers immediately responded with three runs in the bottom of the fourth before tacking on three more runs in the sixth and one in seventh and eighth.
Kellen Strohmeyer led Iowa offensively with a 3-for-3 showing at the plate. Caleb Wulf recorded two hits to move into sole possession of second place in program history in all-time, single-season hits with 89 this season.
Iowa head coach Rick Heller walks into the dugout after defeating Rutgers, 4-3, in a Big Ten Baseball tournament game at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha on Wednesday, May 21, 2025.
