WEST LAFAYETTE – Tanner Andrews made his final pitching performance on his home field one to remember Thursday.

Andrews, the former three-sport star at Tippecanoe Valley High School, was superb in pitching Purdue past Michigan.

Senior Andrews shined on the mound in his final career outing at Alexander Field, working 7 1/3 shutout innings to lead Purdue  to a 3-0 win vs. No. 17 Michigan in the series opener.

The Boilermakers’ 11th consecutive home win allowed them to pull even with the Wolverines in second place in the Big Ten standings. Minnesota (17-4 B1G) clinched at least a share of the conference title with its win Thursday at Rutgers.

Purdue (32-18, 15-6 B1G) joined Stanford as the only teams to shut out Michigan (32-17, 15-6 B1G) this season. The Boilermakers’ fourth shutout win of the year was their third in Big Ten play. However, it was their first in a series opener since Andrews helped blank Iowa 2-0 in the 2017 conference opener in Iowa City.

 Ross Learnard  retired four of the five batters he faced to close out the victory, earning his 13th save to match Andy Helmer’s   single-season program record from 2000.

Harry Shipley  was 3-for-3 with a sac fly and a run scored. Nick Dalesandro threw out a pair of base stealers, including one from his knees, and delivered an RBI single in the seventh inning. Ben Nisle drove in the Boilermakers’ first run, coming through with a timely two-out RBI single in the bottom of the first.

Andrews received a standing ovation and had the honor of coming back out for a curtain call after leaving the game in the eighth inning. He struck out the last batter he faced in his final home start. The senior fanned five total while scattering six singles over 7 1/3 innings. He did not issue a walk until the sixth inning. Purdue played flawless defense behind their ace.

Andrews helped lead the Boilermakers to a 6-2 record in Big Ten series openers this season and an 11-5 mark as an upperclassman.

The sixth inning was the only frame in which Andrews allowed multiple batters to reach base. But he struck out the Wolverines’ No. 2 and 4 hitters for the first two outs of the frame. He came back from a 3-0 count to strike out cleanup hitter Jesse Franklin looking. Purdue head coach Mark Wasikowski  called it the biggest out of the contest after the game.

After striking out just one batter over the first five innings, Andrews fanned four of the final nine batters he faced. Dalesandro erased a leadoff walk in the top of the seventh by cutting down Christian Bullock at second base. Bullock was 18 of 22 on stolen base attempts entering the night. Dalesandro has thrown out a league-high 20 base stealers this season.

Leadoff singles by Shipley and Olund in the first two innings helped Purdue plate a pair of early runs before Michigan starter Tommy Henry settled in. An error in the top of the first allowed Nisle to come to the plate and the freshman delivered a hit in his first at-bat for the fifth game in a row. He has a team-high 13 RBI over the last nine games.

Shipley delivered a sacrifice fly with the bases loaded and no outs the following frame after Tyler Powers drew a walk while initially trying to execute a sacrifice bunt.

Shipley and Dalesandro singled back-to-back in the seventh inning and the Boilermakers tacked on an insurance run after the Michigan outfielders committed errors on both hits.

Learnard induced an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play with the first pitch he threw after replacing Andrews in the top of the eighth. Third baseman Evan Warden made two nice defensive plays in the ninth to help Learnard close out the win.

Game 2 of the series is slated for Friday at 7 p.m. ET and will be televised live by the Big Ten Network.