Game Notes / Live Audio / Gameday Central
WEEKEND SERIES INFORMATION
Purdue (3-4) at Southeast Missouri State (5-2)
Friday, March 3 to Sunday, March 5 at 4, 3 and 2 p.m. ET
Capaha Field / Cape Girardeau, Missouri
All-Time Series: Tied 1-1
Last Meetings: Split a Doubleheader in February 2009 -- Purdue lost 13-11, Won 9-2
PROBABLE PITCHING MATCHUPS
Friday: Tanner Andrews (Jr, RHP) vs. SEMO's Clay Chandler (Sr, RHP)
Saturday: Gareth Stroh (So, LHP) vs. SEMO's Robert Beltran (Sr, LHP)
Sunday: Tanner Schumacher (Sr, RHP) vs. SEMO's Justin Murphy (Sr, RHP)
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue baseball travels south on Interstate 57 again this weekend for a three-game series against the three-time defending regular-season champion of the Ohio Valley Conference, Southeast Missouri State.
First pitch at the new-look Capaha Field in Cape Girardeau is set for 4 p.m. Friday, 3 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday (all times ET). Friday's series opener was moved up to an afternoon start this week after originally being announced as a night game.
Since the Boilermakers' last visit to Cape Girardeau in 2009, a full artificial turf surface, including the mound, has been installed at Capaha Field. A new outfield wall, renovated bullpens and video board were among the other upgrades at the city-owned field. Purdue will see another turf mound when it visits Iowa for the opening weekend of Big Ten play (March 24-26).
Both Purdue and Southeast Missouri are led by first-year head coaches. Mark Wasikowski began his coaching career at SEMO, working under longtime skipper Mark Hogan (1996-2012) during the 1997 and 1998 seasons. The Redhawks, then known as the Indians, won their first-ever OVC Tournament crown in 1998 to qualify for an NCAA Regional. While working on his master's degree at SEMO, Wasikowski also met his wife Lori.
First-year SEMO head coach Andy Sawyers, a Nebraska alumnus, was also hired this past summer after stints as an assistant coach at Texas A&M and Kansas State. Sawyers replaced Steve Bieser, who was hired as the head coach at Missouri after leading SEMO to the three straight OVC regular-season titles (a league first).
The Redhawks are an annual contender in the OVC, earning a conference-record 22 consecutive OVC Tournament berths. Now an 11-team league for baseball, the OVC continues to feature a six-team tournament field. SEMO's steak dates back to 1995, two seasons before Wasikowski became an assistant coach. But for all their success in qualifying for the conference tournament, the Redhawks had only won it one time (2002) from 1999 through 2015. SEMO rallied through the loser's bracket last year, beating Jacksonville State twice on the final day of the event to extend to qualify for the NCAA Tournament. The Redhawks lost to Mississippi State and Louisiana Tech at a Regional in Starkville.
Evan Warden played against Southeast Missouri as a freshman at Morehead State. Warden finished the three-game series in Kentucky 5-for-11 with a walk, sac bunt and two RBI, starting all three games at third base. The Redhawks won the series but Morehead got the last laugh in the championship game of the OVC Tournament; Warden did not see action in the postseason.
Purdue's double play combination of Harry Shipley and Warden have both reached base safely in every game this season. Shipley has been on safely in 12 straight games dating back to the end of last year. Together they've been hit by a pitch 10 times already. Shipley has reached base safely 14 times over the first seven games. After starting the 2016 campaign mired in a 4-for-34 slump, it took him until game 13 to have been on base safely 14 times. Shipley had a 15-game reached base safely streak as a freshman in 2015, which ranks as the longest such run by any active Boilermaker.
Pitching has led the way for SEMO early this season. The Redhawks have surrendered no more than five runs in any of their first seven games. They'll throw three seniors at the Boilermakers this weekend. SEMO's pitching staff has issued only 11 walks in 61 innings pitched. Carlos Vega (8 IP, 2 R, 1 BB, 7) and Matthew Wade (3 2/3 IP, 1 H, 0 R) have teamed up to close out four of the first five wins. Offensively, the Redhawks scored 22 of their 44 runs in one game -- a series-opening win vs. Western Illinois last weekend.
Purdue has not played an OVC opponent since sweeping a three-game series at Murray State in March 2012. That was the opening weekend of the spring break trip that year. Stop No. 2 of that trip was the team's last game in the Show Me State, a midweek win at Missouri State. Purdue is scheduled to play at Saint Louis next season during its spring break trip.