My 22 Favorite Purdue Baseball Photos Of 2022

Today Purdue starts off their post season in Omaha. This has been a fun year watching this Purdue baseball team. They started the year on a historic run. I had flashbacks to ten years prior when I couldn’t wait for the team to finally come North. They did not disappoint when they made it up here. They play a fun brand of baseball that is very easy to photograph. They are always taking the extra base and getting dirty doing it. That makes for great photos. This year I don’t know if the numbers below actually mean anything. In fact on of the first photos that you will see might be my favorite photo of the year. For this countdown I think they it is more about just highlighting the team and how much fun they were to watch. Don’t worry there are far more than twenty-two photos in the countdown. Here are some of my favorite photos from a very fun season.

22.  We start the countdown with a little pre and postgame fun. The first photo is Evan Albrecht before a game with his teammates. When Evan was batting ninth they had a great send off for him as he took the field. The second photo of Evan is after he hit a walk off. Once again mobbed by his teammates, but this time after the game.

21. A great catch in right field for Tanner Haston comes in at number 21. Tanner went back and took a couple of bases away late in the game earlier this season. What I didn’t know is that he was also celebrating his birthday that weekend. It was a good weekend to be Tanner.

20. This was the year of the steal. Purdue set a team record for stolen bases, and it was fun watching them swipe the extra bag. Above are a few photos that I liked from the season with the players sliding in to various bases. The fun thing is that I was lucky enough to grab a head first slide into every base this season.

19. You love a good story and Ryan Howe coming back from an injury to hit a dinger against Indiana is a great story. If my memory is correct he came into the game earlier in the inning as a pinch runner, and then as the order came back to him he took one deep. It was a fun moment for the senior, and I was lucky to be there that day.

18.  Wyatt Wendall had a section of scouts for every appearance this year it seemed like. I enjoyed watching his father play in the bigs years earlier so I was excited earlier this season to get to see him. Part of the fun of doing this is getting that chance to see the next generation of players come through.

17.  I might have photographed Tyler Powers longer than any other baseball player. I started making photos of him in 2016 when he was playing in the Colt World Series. It was only a few years later when I realized that he was the shortstop in one of my favorite photos from that tournament. Over the years at Purdue he became an easy target for my camera. Before an early game this season I was lucky enough to make one last photo of Tyler that I really liked.

16. Beating your rival is always a fun thing. I love the emotion here as Purdue celebrates a big win over Indiana. This was a very happy group of young men having a little fun after a hard fought game.

15. When the flag is lowered it is never a good thing. Something bad has happened to bring it down. When it is down though it allows me to place it into more photos. This year I had some fun with the American flag and this was another opportunity to do that.

14. This was the one sunset I was able to see at Alexander Field this season. I went to the game hoping that the sky would light up, and it never really did. I was able to catch a fun end to the game though so it was time well spent. One of these years the sky will cooperate and give me the photo that I have been hoping for since the park opened.

13. I have been lucky enough to make photos in this park since it opened in 2013. Over the years I have spent some time trying to find new angles of the action. Here I found a new way to show off the park with a nice late day sky in the background.

12. One game this season things lined up to make a photo like this. You need the light to hit just right at the perfect time. The clubhouse in the background is in the shadows and the pitcher has a little light hitting him. It is a fun was to make a different photo.

11. On senior day I had a feeling that no baseball was going to be played. I went into the day thinking about making the obvious senior day photos, but also finding a few bonus photos along the way. This was one that might have been one of the most well covered moments of the day. Everything just kind of worked here for a photo that I really liked.

10. Senior Jackson Smeltz had a great season to end his Purdue career. He was lights out for the Boilermakers. When he took the mound you knew that you had a good chance to get the win. He has battled through so much to get to this point that you wish every bit of success on him. His unique pitching motion was always fun to cover over the years.

9. I have said it a few times now, but this team was fun to cover. I love the emotion here after a double by Curtis Washington. I first saw Curtis in the Prospect League Championship last summer. I was told what a great outfielder he was, but the team started him as shortstop. He made many plays and was a big factor in why his team took home the title. I was excited to see what he could do for Purdue, and he did not disappoint. Hopefully we have a few more photos like this coming in the next few years.

8. This is what baseball is all about. Blue skies and high fives.

7. This year the new video board made its debut in left field. I tried to work it into as many photos as I could. Here senior Eric Hildebrand pitches with his headshot looming over him.

6. Part of the fun of that new video board is the huge American flag that would fly on it during the National Anthem. Early in the season I knew that I wanted to use this, and I made the bottom photo of Cam Thompson. Later in the year I decided to try it again in the outfield and there was Cam again. I think that this photo has a lot of possibilities.

5. This was the year where I found primes. Here I was having some fun with the depth of field on my 50mm lens. It really is the perfect lens for these on deck photos.

4. When the sun is setting there is no ballpark I would rather be at than Alexander to capture the golden light. I really is set up to showcase the players at that time. This year we only had one game that I was at where the golden light was going crazy, but I tried to make the most of it.

3. I love this little celebration after a win that the outfielders put on. I am a little older and slower so I didn’t quite make it all the way to them here, but I still like how the photo turned out.

2. It is always fun at the beginning of the year to see the new players. Troy Viola was one of those guys that was coming here for a year to help the team out. He came in and made a big impact during his short stay at Purdue. These are the guys that make this team so easy to root for.

1. This was the last photo that I made this season, and maybe my favorite. This young man offered to help get the tarp off of the field, and then had a day to remember as the team made him feel so special. That is the thing about this club. There was a lengthy delay while the teams decided what to do. Rain was coming so we waited. During that wait I saw so many little things that players did to make the kids who came to the park have a day. They didn’t see a pitch thrown, but they had the time of their lives. This is the joy of baseball at its finest.

So there are my favorite photos from this past Purdue baseball season. This was the first year in a long time when I did not work a game for the team. Things have changed at Purdue, and I really took things in before I walked off the field on Saturday. I have had some great times at Alexander Field. I have no doubt that I will make photos there in the future. It might be more like it was ten years ago at Lambert though where I make photos more as a fan. No matter what I am still chasing that epic sunset photo that I have been thinking about since the park opened. I will leave you with one last photo of this senior class. It has been a pleasure covering them.