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SERIES INFORMATION
Purdue (2-2) at Little Rock (0-4)
Friday, Feb. 24 to Sunday, Feb. 26 at 4, 3 and 2 p.m. ET
Gary Hogan Field / Little Rock, Arkansas
Series History: First Meeting
PROBABLE PITCHING MATCHUPS
Friday: Tanner Andrews (Jr, RHP) vs. UALR's Matt McDowell (Sr, RHP)
Saturday: Gareth Stroh (So, LHP) vs. UALR's Cory Malcom (Sr, RHP)
Sunday: Tanner Schumacher (Sr, RHP) vs. UALR's Chandler Fidel (Fr, LHP)
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - For the second of its seven consecutive weekends on the road to begin the season, Purdue baseball make its first trip to the state of Arkansas in 50 years for a three-game series at Little Rock.
First pitch at Gary Hogan Field in the state capital of the Natural State is set for 4 p.m. Friday, 3 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday (all times ET). The Boilermakers have not played in Arkansas since dropping two of three in a March 1967 series at Arkansas State. Hogan Field features an artificial field turf surface on the infield and grass outfield. Friday is the Trojans' home opener.
Purdue opened its new campaign and first season under head coach Mark Wasikowski with a four-game split at Little Rock's Sun Belt Conference rival Texas State. The Boilermakers held the lead in all four games and at the end of 24 of the 36 innings in the series altogether. Early runs were a big part of the story. Purdue outscored the Bobcats 31-19 over the first five innings of the series, but the home team salvaged the split with a 19-6 scoring edge after the fifth inning. Sustained and balanced offensive production while putting together a cleaner weekend defensively will be among the top goals. The Boilermakers committed 12 errors in San Marcos.
TOP TO BOTTOM PRODUCTION FROM THE LINEUP
- As the 37 runs in the series would suggest, Purdue had a pretty balanced attack offensively last weekend. Skyler Hunter and Jacson McGowan both drove in a run in all four games, becoming the first Boilermakers with a four-game RBI streak since Kyle Wood drove in a run in seven straight games during his memorable March power surge last season. However, Barrett Serrato (2011) was the last Boilermaker to drive in a run in each of the first four games of a season.
- Evan Warden, Harry Shipley, Alec Olund and Logan Poisall joined Hunter as Boilermakers to reach base safely in all four games at Texas State. That quintet was a combined 26-for-70 (.371) with 11 RBI and 15 free passes, scoring 21 of Purdue's 37 runs (57 percent).
FRESHMEN CONTRIBUTE AT THE PLATE
- Like Hunter, Mike Madej also started the first four games of his collegiate career. He was 4-for-11 with five RBI and four runs scored over the first three games of the series before behind held hitless Sunday. He hit the first of Purdue's three home runs in the first inning Saturday, becoming the first freshman to connect for the Boilermakers' first homer of a season since Cameron Perkins in 2010.
- Freshman Bryce Bonner made the most of his nine plate appearances while starting the final two games of the series. He had four hits, three walks and a sac fly, doing something productive in eight of the nine trips to the dish. He and McGowan both had a four-RBI game. Purdue had only five four-plus RBI games all of last season.
ANDREWS LEADS THE WAY ON THE MOUND
- Tanner Andrews leads Purdue's weekend rotation into action this week as the reigning Big Ten Pitcher of the Week after he struck out nine over seven innings of two-hit ball in the season-opening win. Dalton Parker also excelled on the mound last weekend, working five scoreless innings of one-hit relief to help Purdue win game two of the series. Look for Parker to be used in similar fashion again this weekend if Boilermakers have the lead during the back half of a game.
QUICK LOOK AT LITTLE ROCK
- The Trojans may still be in search of its their win, but they have performed well on the mound and defensively early this year. Little Rock was not charged with an error in its season-opening series at Oral Roberts before committing three in Wednesday's midweek opener at Louisiana Tech. However, the Trojans were unable to make a notable lead hold up in three of their first four games. ORU scored six times in the fifth inning of the season opener to overcome the visitors' 4-2 lead. The following day, Little Rock took a 3-1 lead into the bottom of the ninth but ended up losing on a walk-off in the 13th inning. Wednesday in Ruston, La Tech scored three times in the bottom of the eighth en route to winning 4-2.
- Elkhart, Indiana, native Cory Malcom was sharp in his season-opening start for Little Rock, striking out 11 over seven innings of one-run ball. Later in that 13-inning affair, lefty Dylan Slayton struck out five of the 10 batters he faced over 2 2/3 innings of one-hit relief.
- Little Rock has four different players with a home run already. However, the Trojans also have only 14 walks vs. 44 strikeouts along with just one sacrifice bunt and two stolen bases (in five attempts).