Big Ten baseball tournament: Purdue to face Indiana after stopping Ohio State - Indianapolis Star

Kevin Plawecki's two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh inning Thursday night put top-seeded Purdue ahead for good in its 5-4 victory over Ohio State in the Big Ten baseball tournament in Columbus, Ohio.

Trailing 3-2 entering the inning, Cameron Perkins reached on an error and Plawecki homered to make it 4-3.

"You always hope that your big-time players can step up, and that's what makes them big-time players," Purdue coach Doug Schreiber said. "It's not all about statistics. It's about getting the key hit or the key defensive play or the key pitch at a key time."

Stephen Talbott singled and scored on Perkins' fielder's choice in the eighth to make it 5-3.

Ohio State scored in the ninth against Purdue closer Nick Wittgren, who struck out two to earn his 10th save of the season.

Boilermakers starter Joe Haase (9-1) went eight innings, allowing three runs on six hits and striking out one.

"I've been able to go deep into a few games this year, and with the low pitch count, I still had some (velocity) with me going into the eighth," Haase said.

Talbott had three hits and Plawecki and Eric Charles had two each.

Each team scored in the first inning and Purdue took a 2-1 lead in the second. Ohio State scored twice in the sixth to take a 3-2 lead.

The Boilermakers (42-12) play Indiana, which also won Thursday, at 7 p.m. today in the winner's bracket of the double elimination tournament.

Indiana 6, Michigan State 4 The second-seeded Hoosiers (31-26) scored four runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to beat the Spartans (36-20).

Michael Basil had a two-run double to put IU up 5-4, and he scored the final run on Dustin DeMuth's single.

MSU loaded the bases with none out in the ninth against Jonny Hoffman (8-1), but he retired his final three batters to close it out.

Joey DeNato started, going 72/3 innings, allowing four runs on six hits, striking out four and walking five. He allowed two Spartans home runs.

IU's Micah Johnson had three hits, while Justin Cureton, Sam Travis and DeMuth had two each.