Game Notes | Listen | Watch Saturday (PPV) | Game Day Central
Probable Pitching Matchups
Friday: Mike Kornacker (Fr, RHP) vs. OU's Jake Elliott (So, RHP)
Saturday: Brett Haan (Sr, RHP) vs. OU's Alec Hansen (So, RHP)
Sunday: Matt Frawley (So, RHP) vs. OU's Jeffrey Curran (Sr, LHP)
Weekend Weather Forecast for Norman, Okla.
Friday: 51 degrees, clear skies
Saturday: 59 degrees, clear skies
Sunday: 58 degrees, 20 percent chance of rain
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Purdue baseball travels to the state of Oklahoma for the first time since 2000 this weekend for a three-game series against the last of its five first-time opponents on the 2015 schedule, the Sooners of the University of Oklahoma.
First pitch at L. Dale Mitchell Park in Norman is set for 7 p.m. Friday, 6 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday (all times ET). Friday's game will be televised live by Fox College Sports Pacific and Fox Sports Southwest Plus. Sunday's game will be televised beginning at 2 p.m. ET on Fox College Sports Central and Fox Sports Southwest.
In April of 2000, head coach Doug Schreiber's second year, Purdue (4-7 in 2015) was swept in a three-game series at Oklahoma State, dropping one-run affairs in the final two games. The non-conference series was played the final weekend of April in part because the Big Ten schedule only featured seven conference weekends despite there being an even number of 10 teams in the league. Fast forward 15 years later and the Big Ten features 13 baseball programs and Oklahoma (10-5 in 2015) remains a part of a Big 12 Conference that features nine baseball programs.
Schreiber coached his 100th game as the leader of the Boilermakers that weekend in Stillwater. He'll coach his 900th career game at Purdue Friday in Norman. The former Boilermaker second baseman broke the all-time wins record in 2012 and the games coached benchmark early in the 2013 campaign.
Six of Purdue's last seven games have been played against first-time opponent entering this season. The Boilers have gone 3-3 in those six games and were three outs away from another victory this past Saturday against CSU Bakersfield. Matt Frawley's seven shutout innings of three-hit ball in Phoenix marked the first time a Purdue pitcher worked at least seven scoreless frames in an outing since Lance Breedlove went 7 1/3 to lead the Boilers to a shutout win vs. Indiana at the 2012 Big Ten Tournament. But after its last two victories went final on game-ending double plays, Purdue could not prevent Bakersfield from scoring four in the top of the ninth thanks to a five straight hits to begin the inning.
After turning nine double plays over the course of the Feb. 26 doubleheader against Gonzaga, the Boilers once again lead the Big Ten in twin killings turned. Since the beginning of the 2012 Big Ten championship season, Purdue has now finished off eight wins with a notable game-ending double play. The victories at Illinois (1-2-3 DP) and at Illinois State (L5-3 DP) in 2104 ended in similar fashion as the wins vs. Sam Houston State (1-6-3 DP) and Gonzaga (L6-4 DP) this year.
The Boilermakers did the majority of their scoring in the first three innings during their four games in Phoenix. Of the 16 runs scored last weekend, only six were scored after the third inning. Purdue had a timely three-run insurance rally in the seventh inning vs. Bakersfield, but it proved to be only enough to get the game to extras.
Oklahoma won the Big 12 Tournament and an NCAA Regional at Virginia Tech in 2013. Coincidentally, OU's hired Va. Tech's Pete Hughes as its new head coach after Sonny Golloway left the Sooners for Auburn following the 2013 season. Oklahoma did not qualify for the NCAA Tournament last season for the first time since 2007. The Sooners last went to the College World Series in 2010 and were the national championships are recently as 1994. They were picked fifth in the Big 12's preseason coaches poll this year.
Oklahoma spent back-to-back weekends in the desert recently, playing nearly half of the Pac-12 (Arizona State, Washington State, Washington, Oregon State and Utah) in the state of Arizona and then a four-game series with BYU in Las Vegas. After compiling a 6-3 record in those games, the Sooners thumped Arkansas-Little Rock at home on Tuesday, 22-0. They're headed out to Honolulu next weekend for a four-game series at Hawaii before opening Big 12 play with a three-game set in Norman with Texas Tech.
While OU has yet to play a traditional three-game weekend series this season, it has had three pitchers emerge as its top starters. Jake Elliott (1.45 ERA, 17 Ks) and Jeffrey Curran (1.88 ERA, 1 XBH allowed in 14 1/3 IP) both sport ERAs below 2.00 and Alec Hansen leads the team with 24 strikeouts in 15 innings pitched. Sheldon Neuse (3-for-3, 5 RBI) and Craig Aikin (6-for-7, 6 RBI) both had big days at the plate Tuesday vs. UALR and have been among the team leaders offensively while hitting in the top half of the lineup. Kolbey Carpenter (.333, 4 HR, 11, 8 BB) is also off to a hot start.
Games against Missouri and West Virginia in 2010 featured past and present Big 12 teams, respectively, but Purdue has not played a series at a current Big 12 squad since opening the 2008 season at Baylor.
The Boilermakers are scheduled to host Northern Illinois at home next weekend.