Purdue baseball’s postseason push, including a near-upset of No. 1 UCLA (51-6) over the weekend, fell short.
The Boilermakers were not among the 64 teams selected to the NCAA Tournament when the full field was announced Monday. Instead of reaching a regional for the first time since 2018, Purdue’s season ends with a 37-20 record.
Purdue went into the final weekend of the Big Ten’s regular season seemingly in good shape for a regional bid. With even one win against Iowa it could potentially secure a top-four Big Ten Tournament seed and a bye into the single-elimination bracket.
Instead, it lost all three games to Iowa in Des Moines. As the 5 seed, it then lost its conference tournament opener to 12 seed Michigan State.
Purdue had to beat Illinois and Iowa, two other non-NCAA Tournament teams, to reach the single-elimination bracket It led UCLA 3-1 with two outs in the bottom of the eighth but could not hold on against the No. 1 seed in a 4-3 loss.
Besides the Bruins, only three other Big Ten teams made the field: Oregon, coached by former Purdue coach Mark Wazikowski, Southern Cal and Nebraska.
Purdue second baseman Dylan Drake made the All-Big Ten Tournament team.
Purdue won 11 of its 14 Big Ten weekends, including six in a row. It beat Baylor and Oregon State in non-conference en route to its third straight 30-win season.
That was not enough, however, to push the Boilers off of the bubble and into the NCAA Tournament field.
Nathan Baird and Sam King have the best Purdue sports coverage, and sign up for IndyStar’s Boilermakers newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: 37 wins not enough for Purdue to make 2026 NCAA baseball tournament
Reporting by Nathan Baird, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
