Freshman Jasen Oliver drives in 4 and Indiana holds off Purdue 8-6 in Big Ten tourney

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Freshman Jasen Oliver was a triple shy of a cycle and drove in four runs to lead third-seeded Indiana to an 8-6 win over sixth-seeded Purdue in the Big Ten Conference Tournament on Tuesday night.

The win moved Indiana into a Thursday game against the winner of Ohio State-Nebraska. Purdue plays the loser on Wednesday in an elimination game.

The start of the game was delayed several hours by rain, forcing the game between Penn State and Illinois to move to Wednesday morning.

Oliver belted a three-run home run in the fifth inning and he had one of three RBI doubles for the Hoosiers (31-22-1) in the sixth. Tyler Cerny and Brock Tibbitts had RBI doubles before Oliver and Jake Stadler and Josh Pyne contributed run-scoring singles in the five-run inning that gave Indiana an 8-1 lead.

That was key as the Boilermakers (33-23) got a leadoff home run from Keenan Spence in the eighth and tagged two relievers for four runs in the ninth.

Keenan Taylor opened the ninth with a homer off Jacob Vogel and then after a single and a walk, Brayden Risedorph gave up a three-run blast to Spence, the first batter he faced. After allowing a single, Risedorph closed it out with a double play.

Drew Buhr (2-2) got the win, pitching four innings before giving up two hits to open the eighth.

Taylor and Stevens both had three hits for Purdue.

The in-state rivals had not met in the league tournament since 2012 when Indiana won the first of three-straight championships.

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The Associated Press