Titan Series ends with Purdue win

Despite a come-from-behind victory Friday to open its weekend series with arch-rival Purdue, IU lost both games in Saturday's doubleheader. Sunday' s season finale was canceled due to bad weather, preventing the Hoosiers from tying the weekend series, cementing the Boilers' Titan Series victory. Purdue picked up the baseball point to increase its lead in the annual head-to-head challenge between the two rival schools. The final score of this year's Titan Series ended with Purdue winning 11-9. The losses also gave arch-rival Purdue the opportunity to compete in the Big Ten tournament as the No. 6 seed.\nSenior pitcher Nick Vitielliss threw his second complete game of the season, as he allowed three unearned runs in the second inning off an error by freshman third baseman Josh Richardson. The game continued with no score until the top of the seventh when IU scored three to tie the game. IU came back with two runs in the eight and four in the ninth to overcome the Boilers 9-3.\nThe Hoosier offense was lead by seniors Kevin Mahar, who scored three runs, Kevin Donley and Seth Bynum each with two RBIs.\nThe Hoosiers lost two close games Saturday. Game two provided a bit of deja vu as the Boilermakers scored one run in the seventh for the victory. Both games also had Purdue scoring one run early, with IU tying up in the following inning. The pitching from IU was solid, but even better for Purdue's Chris Toneguzzi, completing the seven-inning game with no earned runs in Saturday's game one. Seniors Chris Behrens and Adam Pegg combined for 6.1 innings and surrendered just two earned runs on just five hits and one walk. The Hoosiers scored their one run in Saturday's game one in the fourth inning as Mahar's sacrifice fly drove in Bynum who reached on the error by the Purdue shortstop.\nGame two also had cleaner field defense with no errors and just one wild pitch as both pitchers went the distance as Hoosier junior Steve Nielsen went 6.2 innings before Purdue's Andy Dahl hit a home run to win the game. IU's single run came from from junior Joe Kemp. \nSunday's game was canceled due to rain and was not rescheduled. The Hoosiers finished the season 25-30 overall, 9-22 in the Big Ten, good for last place in the conference standings.