Game Notes | Listen | Watch (PPV) | Game Day Central
Probable Pitching Matchups
Game 1: Brett Haan (Sr, RHP) vs. UMD's Mike Shawaryn (So, RHP)
Game 2: Matt Frawley (So, RHP) vs. UMD's Robert Galligan (Jr, LHP)
Game 3: Gavin Downs (Jr, RHP) vs. UMD's Jake Drossner (Jr, LHP)
Weekend Weather Forecast for West Lafayette, Ind.
Friday: 59 degrees, clear skies
Sunday: 61 degrees, clear skies
Weekend Promotions at Alexander Field
Friday: Boiler Block Party beer garden; $1 GA tickets for Purdue Greek Life students wearing their letters
Sunday: $1 youth tickets for Kids Day; 2nd set of Purdue Baseball tickets given away to all fans
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Purdue baseball hosts Big Ten newcomer and 20th-ranked Maryland for its third weekend series of the month against a Top 25 conference rival.
The reworked schedule features a Friday doubleheader at 4 p.m. and a Sunday series finale at noon. Game two of the series was moved to Friday night due to rain and thunderstorms in the forecast for Saturday. Fans with tickets for Saturday's game can exchange them for general admission tickets to any of the three games this weekend or any future home date this season.
Purdue (13-28, 1-11 Big Ten) will welcome back a large group of alumni this weekend and they will be recognized during the nightcap Friday. Former Boilermakers going all the way back to the 1950s are expected to be in attendance.
The Terrapins (27-13, 8-4 Big Ten) have been nationally ranked all season after winning the Columbia, S.C. Regional of the NCAA Tournament last season. Maryland is led by Brandon Lowe, the Big Ten leader in home runs (9), walks (27) and slugging percentage (.624), and Mike Shawaryn, the league leader in wins (9) and strikeouts (82). Shawaryn has won nine of his 10 starts and struck out 20 more batters than any other Big Ten pitcher. He was one of four Big Ten pitchers named to the College Baseball Hall of Fame's Pitcher of the Year watch list Thursday.
Coincidentally, both players have compiled many of their impressive statistics while playing in the friendly confines of Bob "Turtle" Smith Stadium, where the dimensions are 320 to left field, 380 to center and 325 to right field. The Terps have played 19 of their 40 games in College Park this season and just wrapped up a home-heavy stretch in which they played 13 of their 15 games at home from April 1-22. Maryland posted an 8-7 record during that 15-game stretch, dropping its final three games. Since blowing out Iowa, 10-1, in the April 10 opener of key Big Ten series, the Terps have scored just 21 runs in their last eight games. And nine of those 21 runs came in a game two win against Cal State Fullerton last weekend.
However, with Shawaryn leading the way, Maryland has won its first game of every weekend but one. UNC Wilmington went on to sweep UMD after scoring six times in 4 2/3 innings against Shawaryn in the series opener. Tyler Stiles had been the Terps' Saturday starter in recent weeks but was hit by a line drive off the bat of the first hitter of the game last weekend and had to leave the game. Relief ace Robert Galligan is scheduled to take Stiles spot in the rotation this weekend, making his first start of the season.
Purdue and Maryland have played just once before. The Boilers' 2012 Big Ten Championship team suffered its first loss of the season at the hands of the Terps at East Carolina's Keith LeClair Classic tournament during the second weekend of the season. Current Michigan head coach Erik Bakich was the skipper of Maryland at the time. Brandon Krieg is the only active player for either team to see action in that game, making his collegiate debut that night. However, three alumni expected to be in attendance this weekend saw against UMD in 2012.
Kyle Johnson shares the Big Ten lead in walks with Maryland's Lowe, who has batted leadoff for much of the season. Purdue also features the conference leader in hit by pitch in freshman Harry Shipley (14). However, it is Maryland's hitters that have been plunked the most in the league overall (59) this year.
Shipley has now batted leadoff in each of the last 15 games, reaching base safely at least once in all but one game during that stretch. The freshman has reached safely in 13 of his 26 opportunities to lead off an inning while hitting first in the lineup.
The doubleheader Friday means that seven of Purdue's first 11 weekends this season will have featured a twinbill. Maryland has played five doubleheaders this season, including each of its first three Big Ten weekends (vs. Minnesota, at Michigan and vs. Nebraska).
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