Game Notes | Listen | Watch Thursday & Friday | Game Day Central
Probable Pitching Matchups
Thursday: Shane Bryant (Jr, RHP) vs. PSU's Nick Hedge (Jr, LHP)
Friday: Gavin Downs (Jr, RHP) vs. PSU's Taylor Lehman (Fr, LHP)
Saturday: Brett Haan (Sr, RHP) vs. PSU's Dakota Forsyth (So, RHP)
Series History
All-Time: Purdue leads 43-29
All-Time in West Lafayette: Purdue leads 24-16
Purdue Under Doug Schreiber vs. Penn State: Purdue leads 37-23 (Since 1999)
2014: Penn State won 2-of-3 (April 5-6 in West Lafayette)
Purdue's Last Series Win vs PSU: Purdue swept a 3-game series (March 2013 in University Park)
Purdue's Last Series Win vs PSU in West Lafayette: Purdue won 2-of-3 (March 2012)
First Meeting: Purdue 4, PSU 2 (March 1983 in Lakeland, Fla.)
Weekend Weather Forecast for West Lafayette, Ind.
Thursday: 68 degrees, clear skies
Friday: 79 degrees, clear skies
Saturday: 84 degrees, 50 percent chance of rain
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Purdue baseball looks to continue its late-season run as its hosts Penn State for the final series of the regular season and the final home weekend of the year at Alexander Field.
First pitch is set for 5 p.m. Thursday, 6:30 p.m. Friday and 1 p.m. Saturday. Thursday's game will be televised live by the Big Ten Network. The Boiler Block Party beer garden will be open at both Friday and Saturday's games. Special all you can eat tickets for $15 ($10 youth) are also available for Friday's game, but quantities are limited.
Seven seniors -- four players and three members of the program's support staff -- will be recognized prior to Saturday's season finale. Joe Eichmann, Matt Gibbs, Brett Haan and Brandon Krieg will be playing in their final games at Alexander Field this weekend. Krieg is a three-year starting infielder who has started 84 consecutive games dating back to March of last season. Eichmann and Gibbs have been key members of Purdue's bullpen as upperclassmen. Haan has made all but one of his 18 starts as a Boilermaker as part of the weekend rotation.
Penn State (18-28, 6-14 Big Ten) can still qualify for the Big Ten Tournament if it sweeps Purdue, Illinois sweeps Nebraska in Champaign-Urbana and Minnesota loses at least one game to Michigan State in Minneapolis.
The Boilermakers (18-34, 4-17 Big Ten) were eliminated from Big Ten Tournament contention when they lost the series opener at Nebraska last weekend. However, Purdue came back to win the series in Lincoln and has now won four of five for the second time this year. The Boilers could still finish as high as tied for ninth in the final standings.
The Nittany Lions visit Alexander Field for the second year in a row. Last sesason they swept a Saturday doubleheader to claim their first series victory vs. Purdue since 2007 and their first in West Lafayette since 2003. The Boilers had won 17 of the 21 meetings between 2008 and 20013 and their 37-23 record against PSU equates to the best winning percentage (.617) against any conference rival during head coach Doug Schreiber's 17-year tenure.
Meanwhile, Purdue is closing the regular season against an opponent other than Iowa for the first time since 2009. This will mark the first time since 1998 that Penn State will be the Boilers' final regular-season opponent. They'll also be trying to end their season on a winning streak of three games or longer for the first time since taking three straight from Michigan to close the 2003 campaign.
Kyle Johnson is 10-for-20 with five walks and six RBI in his career against the Nittany Lions thanks in part to a 6-for-11 showing in Purdue's first-ever series sweep in Central Pennsylvania in 2013. Johnson has homered in each of the last four weekend series and went deep twice in Lincoln last weekend en route to finishing the four-game road trip a team-best 9-for-17 with four extra-base hits and four runs scored.
Johnson has reached base safely in a career-best 17 consecutive games overall and 20 of the 21 Big Ten games this year. His five home runs over the last four weekends have allowed Johnson to pull even with Kyle Wood for the team lead in long balls (6) and RBI (32) for the season. Wood has a sizable lead in batting average as he chases the first team triple crown since 2007.
Mike Lutz is another Boilermaker that has enjoyed quite a bit of success against Penn State during his career. The junior has essentially pitched a complete-game shutout against PSU, working 9 1/3 innings of scoreless relief over four appearances the last two years. Lutz closed out Purdue's 4-0 victory against PSU in the series finale at Alexander Field last year, a game in which Haan got the win after working the first five frames. However, Lutz would not be available until Saturday this weekend after pitching a career-high 6 1/3 innings Tuesday in the win at Valparaiso.
Penn State's pitching staff is led by Chicagoland natives Nick Hedge and Jack Anderson. The southpaw Hedge has been serving as the Friday starter and Anderson is the Nittany Lions' top reliever. Together, they did not issue a walk as the two men on the mound in PSU's series-opening win at Michigan State last weekend. Penn State had an excellent chance to win the series in East Lansing, but coughed up leads in the final three innings in each of the next two games. The Nittany Lions remained in the Midwest this week, visiting Wrigley Field for Tuesday's Cubs-Mets game in which Purdue alum Kevin Plawecki was the Mets' starting catcher.
Penn State is unique in that all 13 position players on its active roster have started at least 20 games each. The Nittany Lions are active on the base paths with 66 steals in 82 attempts to go along with 50 sacrifice bunts. But the opposition has also run on PSU often this season, stealing 67 bases in 94 attempts. Purdue (54) and Penn State (52) have both turned over 50 double plays defensively to rank two-three in the Big Ten behind Northwestern (56).
Greg Guers has accounted for eight of PSU's 16 home runs and also leads the team with 14 steals. He has been batting leadoff as of late.
Penn State and Maryland both have to play their final two Big Ten series on the road. The Nittany Lions closed their home season in strong fashion, taking red-hot Illinois to 15 innings, defeating Pittsburgh in their midweek finale and sweeping a series vs. Rutgers. Penn State overcame an eight-run deficit in the middle game of the Rutgers series.
Thirteen of the Nittany Lions' 18 wins this season have come at home. Last weekend's series-opening win at Michigan State was only PSU's second road win as part of a weekend series, and its first since March 8 at Charleston Southern.
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