Game Notes / Live Audio / Live Video Friday / Gameday Central
WEEKEND SERIES INFORMATION
Purdue (11-8) at Iowa (11-8)
Friday to Sunday, March 24 to 26 at 3, 3 and 2 p.m. ET / Friday on BTN2Go
Duane Banks Field / Iowa City, Iowa
All-Time Series: Iowa leads 95-63-1 / All-Time in Iowa City: Iowa leads 50-24
Last Meetings: Iowa swept a 3-game series (April 2015 in West Lafayette)
Last Series in Iowa City: Iowa won 2-of-3 (May 2012)
Purdue's Last Series Win vs. Iowa: Purdue swept a 3-game series (May 2011 in West Lafayette)
Purdue's Last Series Win in Iowa City: Purdue won 3-of-4 (April 2008)
PROBABLE PITCHING MATCHUPS
Friday: Tanner Andrews (Jr, RHP) vs. Iowa's Nick Gallagher (Jr, RHP)
Saturday: Gareth Stroh (So, LHP) vs. Iowa's Ryan Erickson (Sr, LHP)
Sunday: Mike Kornacker (So, RHP) vs. Iowa's Cole McDonald (So, RHP)
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue baseball opens Big Ten Conference play and closes out its 22-game road stretch to begin the season with its first visit to Iowa since 2012.
First pitch at Duane Banks Field in Iowa City is set for 3 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday (all times ET). Friday's start time was moved up a couple hours due to rain the forecast in the evening.
The Boilermakers are the only Big Ten that has yet to play a home game. That changes next week when Kent State (Tuesday) and Valparaiso (Wednesday) visit Alexander Field for the home openers. Purdue and Minnesota are the only Big Ten teams scheduled to play their first two conference weekends on the road. Ohio State hosts the Gophers this weekend and the Boilermakers next weekend.
Iowa was able to play a home game Feb. 22 thanks to the unseasonably warm weather that graced the Midwest the final week of February. But the new artificial turf playing surface that was installed at Duane Banks Field in 2014 (infield) and 2015 (outfield) also helped make the early home opener possible. The facility featured a full natural grass surface when Purdue last visited Iowa City for the final weekend of the 2012 regular season. The Boilermakers hosted the Hawkeyes at Alexander Field three years in a row from 2013 to 2015.
Purdue enters Big Ten play having won six straight games and now leads the league in runs scored, doubles, total bases, hit by pitch, sacrifice bunts and sacrifice flies. Under first-year head coach Mark Wasikowski, the Boilermakers are in the initial stages of what they hope will be a similar program renaissance as Iowa has enjoyed under coach Rick Heller over the last four seasons. The Hawkeyes have qualified for the last three Big Ten Tournaments, a feat the program had not accomplished since 1983 to 1987. Iowa was nationally ranked and qualified for NCAA Regional in 2015 and then made a surprise run to the championship game of the Big Ten Tournament as the eight seed last year.
Purdue and Iowa both won big in midweek games Wednesday. The Hawkeyes hit a pair of grand slams in a 12-1 win vs. Bradley. Iowa has scored 108 runs (9.8 per game) in its 11 wins and just 16 (2 per game) in its eight losses. The Boilermakers have managed to outscore its opponents 58-23 during its six-game win streak.
BIG TEN LEADERS A PLENTY
- Conference leaders in numerous offensive categories will be on the field this weekend in Iowa City. Thanks to a 10-for-19 showing at the plate during Purdue's six-game win streak, Skyler Hunter now leads the Big Ten with a .426 batting average. Harry Shipley and Iowa's Mason McCoy share the league lead with 21 runs scored. McCoy is also tops in the league in doubles (8), with Jacson McGowan (7) and Shipley (7) close behind. McGowan (23) is also second to Iowa slugger Jake Adams (28) in RBI. Adams hit three of his league-leading eight homers in a 10-inning win at Kansas State last weekend.
- McGowan has eight RBI during Purdue's win streak. He's tied with Iowa's Robert Neustrom for second in the league. Neustrom's 32 hits are tops in the conference and he's second to Hunter with a .395 batting average.
- Evan Warden continues to lead not only the Big Ten but also the country with 14 hit by pitch. His .479 on-base percentage would rank third in the league, but Warden has had 26 plate appearances (10 walks, 14 HBP, 6 sacrifices) that have not counted as at-bats. Relief ace Dalton Parker is in the same boat. His .133 batting average against would lead the Big Ten but he's worked 18 2/3 in Purdue's 19 games, just a hair below the one inning per team game minimum for pitchers.
- Tanner Andrews has won four of his first five starts to lead the Big Ten in victories. Andrews pitched in a team-high 12 games in conference play last season but made just one start. He'll look to lead the Boilermakers to a victory in their Big Ten opener for the fourth time in the last six years. However, Purdue has not won its conference-opening series since taking two of three at Ohio State in 2012.