5th-year seniors Mike Bolton, Couper Cornblum lead Purdue baseball into Big Ten Tournament

WEST LAFAYETTE — When Mike Bolton Jr. needs to find his safe haven, he knows exactly where to go.

Alexander Field is empty and silent and Bolton will walk inside Purdue's baseball stadium just to take it all in, even if no one is around.

"I come here some nights, we don't even have practice and I come and sit here just because it has always been a safe place for me," Bolton said. "I feel at home."

In a transfer portal era of college athletics where many players like Bolton, with plenty of individual success but without as much in terms of team success, leave for another school.

Bolton didn't.

"In today's world of transfer portal and advisers getting into the heads of players, its very transitional," Purdue baseball coach Greg Goff said. "For a guy like him to sit there and come back and believe in what we were doing is pretty awesome."

Nobody in Purdue history has stolen more bases in their career than Bolton.

But it's team success that brought him back to West Lafayette for his fifth year. It was a chance to turn a program around that lured Bolton's outfield mate Couper Cornblum from a baseball-rich program at Wichita State to Purdue.

Together, Bolton and Cornblum have catalysts of a Boilermaker turnaround as fifth-year seniors.

"When I got here, I found out we had the same mentality, trying to bring a culture to this program and make it one that can win not just now, but in the long term," said Cornblum, in his second season at Purdue after three years at Wichita State.

Goff refers to Cornblum as Purdue's solid rock.

And the Boilermakers refer to center fielder as their leader, along with Bolton in left field and as the leadoff man.

"It's been really fun to watch those guys and how they've been able to continue to build this program and how hard they work," Goff said. "We have a saying up there that All-Americans are made when nobody is watching. These guys are the epitome of that."

Purdue is 33-22 entering Tuesday's 10 a.m. Big Ten quarterfinal game against Indiana.

The Boilers will return to Alexander Field after their Big Ten Tournament run ends.

Bolton hopes it's only briefly enough for he and his teammates to pack their bags for another postseason trip.

"I love it here. I've always bought in to what coach Goff has been preaching," Bolton said. "It's nice to see everything he's been telling me from a freshman 18-, 19-year-old kid come to fruition this year. I feel like I was always one that believed. And now we've got everybody who believes."

Sam King covers sports for the Journal & Courier. Email him at sking@jconline.com and follow him on Twitter and Instagram @samueltking.