Game Notes | Listen | Watch (PPV) | Game Day Central
Probable Pitching Matchups
Friday vs. A&M-Corpus Christi: Mike Kornacker (Fr, RHP) vs. Matt Danton (Sr, RHP)
Saturday vs. Sam Houston State: Brett Haan (Sr, RHP) vs. Sam Odom (So, RHP)
Saturday vs. Sam Houston State: Brian Ghiselli (So, RHP) vs. Logan Boyd (Jr, LHP)
Sunday vs. Missouri: Matt Frawley (So, RHP) vs. Alec Rash (Jr, RHP)
Weekend Weather Forecast for Corpus Christi, Texas
Friday: 65 degrees, clear skies
Saturday: 72 degrees, 40 percent chance of thunderstorms
Sunday: 68 degrees, 40 percent chance of rain
Series History
vs. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi: A&M-CC leads 2-1 (Last Meetings: A&M-CC won 2-of-3, 2005 in Texas)
VS. SHSU: First Meetings
vs. Missouri Purdue leads 5-3 (Last Meetings: Split a 2-Game Midweek Series, 2010 in Columbia)
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Purdue baseball heads to south Texas for the second weekend of the season for the second year in a row, flying to the Gulf Coast for the four-team Kleberg Bank College Classic hosted by Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and the Corpus Christi Hooks of Minor League Baseball.
It's the first of back-to-back four-game weekends for the Boilermakers (1-2). They'll take on A&M-Corpus Christi Friday at 8 p.m. ET, play Sam Houston State in doubleheader action Saturday at noon ET and wrap up the weekend Sunday with a noon ET game against Missouri.
The games will be played at Whataburger Field, which is located along the waterfront in downtown Corpus Christi. The Harbor Bridge looms in the background of the center field wall. The Corpus Christi Hooks are the Houston Astros' Double-A affiliate in the Texas League. This weekend will mark the first time Purdue has played in an active minor league stadium since sweeping a March 2013 series at Penn State.
Sam Houston State (3-1) and A&M-Corpus Christi (3-0) are both members of the Southland Conference. SHSU is the three-time defending champion of the Southland and has played in the last three NCAA Tournaments, advancing to the finals of the Fort Worth Regional hosted by TCU last season.
Purdue visited Houston this time last year for a three-game series at perennial power Rice. It was the Boilers' first trip to Texas since March 2009. Purdue closed out its 2005 spring break trip with a three-game series at A&M-Corpus Christi, but the final two games were played as part of a doubleheader in nearby Robstown, Texas. The Boilermakers also played Lamar on the 2005 spring break trip and those games remain the program's most recent against active members of the Southland Conference.
The 2015 edition of the Kleberg Bank College Classic marks the 10th anniversary of the four-team tournament. Big Ten teams have compiled an 8-2 record in the event, with Indiana (2-1 in 2011), Nebraska (4-0 in 2012) and Iowa (2-1 in 2013) all winning multiple games in recent seasons. Last year's field featured BYU, TCU, Texas-San Antonio and host A&M-Corpus Christi. From 2006-10, it was known as the Whataburger College Classic before Kleberg Bank came aboard as the title sponsor. Alabama, Arizona, Arizona State, Mississippi State, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Rice, Texas Tech, UCLA, Oregon State, Connecticut are some of the universities that have played in the tournament over the last 10 years.
The Purdue coaching staff has opted to have freshman Mike Kornacker start Friday's game against A&M-Corpus Christi. The righthander from Chicagoland did not travel last week due in part to some lingering back soreness, but is projected to be a possible midweek starter or important reliever this year. He'll pitch the first two or three innings Friday in order to give him an opportunity to have a clean start to his first collegiate outing. Gavin Downs is expected to be the first man out of the bullpen vs. A&M-Corpus Christi, a role in which he excelled on Fridays early in 2014. Adam Dressler is also part of the travel roster this weekend after not going to Western Carolina for similar reasons as Kornacker.
Brian Ghiselli will take the ball in the nightcap of the Sam Houston State doubleheader Saturday after making his Purdue debut last weekend as the first man out of the bullpen in the season opener. Matt Frawley had the strongest outing of any Purdue starting pitcher at Western Carolina and will take the ball Sunday vs. Missouri (4-0).
Kyle Wood struck out a career-high seven of the 15 batters he faced over three innings of relief in the Boilers' 9-5 win in Cullowhee last weekend. It was the top strikeout total by a Purdue reliever since Pat Gannon fanned seven over four innings at Tennessee Tech in March 2011.
Brandon Krieg, Kyle Johnson, Jeff Evak and Justin Gubser all hit safely in each of the three games at Western Carolina. Krieg extended his reached base safely streak to 22 consecutive games dating back to April of last year. Evak has been on in 10 straight games going back to the final month of his freshman campaign. In his first three plate appearances as a Boilermaker, Gubser singled as a pinch hitter, connected for a solo home run and drove in another run with a sacrifice fly. The junior college transfer from California started games at catcher and first base in the doubleheader at Western Carolina.
Purdue will play four games in four days next weekend at Arizona State's Phoenix Municipal Classic in the Valley of the Sun, taking on first-time opponents Gonzaga (Thursday and Saturday), ASU (Friday) and CSU Bakersfield (Sunday).
Receive Purdue Baseball news via email. Sign up HERE.
Big Ten Teams at the Kleberg Bank College Classic
2013 - Iowa, 2-1: Wins vs. New Mexico & A&M-CC; Lost to Oklahoma
2012 - Nebraska, 4-0: 2 Wins vs. Utah; also Defeated A&M-CC & UNLV
2011 - Indiana, 2-1: W ins vs. A&M-CC & UConn; Lost to Oregon State
Quick Look at A&M-Corpus Christi (31-27, 19-11 SLC in 2014): The Islanders opened their new season with a three-game sweep of St. Peter's. Senior righthander Matt Danton, who Purdue is expected to face Friday, worked six shutout innings of four-hit ball, striking out seven as the season-opening starting pitcher. The workhorse pitched over 100 innings a year ago. As a team, the A&M-Corpus Christi lineup had more walks than strikeouts against St. Peter's. Outfielders Tyler Ware (.287, 15 XBH, 33 RBI, 23 walks in 2014) and Jordan Lee (.309, 14 XBH, 43 runs, 23 walks, 18 steals) were preseason all-conference selections along with Danton.
Quick Look at Sam Houston State (43-19, 22-8 SLC in 2014): The Bearkats had a quality series win against Wichita State to open their new campaign, taking 2-of-3 before thumping Texas State, 10-0, in Tuesday's midweek game. Preseason all-conference pick Colt Atwood is 10-for-18 with five RBI while striking out just once early this season after batting .306 with 40 RBI and 40 runs scored as a junior. SHSU's projected starters for Saturday's doubleheader, Sam Odom (8 K) and Logan Boyd (9 K), both racked up high strikeout totals while not issuing a walk over six innings in their first starts of the season. As a Freshman All-American in 2014, Odom went 10-2 with a 2.61 ERA last season despite recording only 38 strikeouts in 79 1/3 innings. Boyd has joined the weekend rotation this season after being a reliever as an underclassman. Sam Houston State had a 2.73 team ERA and out homered its opponents 36-15 last year.
Quick Look at Missouri (20-33, 6-24 SEC in 2014): The Tigers swept a four-game series against Iona in Cary, N.C., to begin their new season. Fourteen of the 25 runs Mizzou scored in the series came in the finale, which was called at 14-2 after seven. But the pitching staff did its job by surrendering just eight runs over the four games. The move to the SEC has not been kind to the baseball program at Mizzou. The Tigers have compiled a 16-44 mark in SEC play the last two years, but have been a respectable 22-21 in non-conference action. They swept their way through the conference tournament to qualify for the Tucson Regional in their final season in the Big 12. Projected Sunday starter Alec Rash worked 4 1/3 innings of one-run ball against Iona after putting up strong numbers (2.04 ERA in 17 2/3 IP) as a seldom-used sophomore in 2014. The Tigers batted .242 as a team in 2014 and graduated their top two hitters. JUCO transfer Zach Lavy (8-for-18, 4 runs) and two-year starting shortstop Josh Lester (4-for-12, 6 RBI) led the way offensively against Iona.