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WEEKEND SERIES INFORMATION
Indiana (15-11-2, 3-2-1 B1G) at Purdue (15-13, 3-3 B1G)
Friday to Sunday, April 7 to 9 at 6, 6 and 1 p.m. ET / BTN Plus on BTN2Go, MTC Sports
Alexander Field / West Lafayette, Indiana
All-Time Series: Indiana leads 148-130-2 / All-Time in West Lafayette: Purdue leads 71-63-1
2016: Indiana swept a 3-game series (April 8-10 in Bloomington)
Last Series in West Lafayette, Purdue's Last Series Win vs. IU: Swept a 3-game set (April 2011)
First Meeting: Purdue 3, Indiana 2 (May 1888 in Bloomington)
PROBABLE PITCHING MATCHUPS
Friday: Tanner Andrews (Jr, RHP) vs. IU's Jonathan Stiever (So, RHP)
Saturday: Gareth Stroh (So, LHP) vs. IU's Brian Hobbie (Jr, RHP)
Sunday: Mike Kornacker (So, RHP) vs. IU's Pauly Milto (So, RHP)
WEEKEND PROMOTIONS
- Free admission for Purdue students all season; beer and wine for sale at all home games for fans 21+
- Saturday: Fans are encouraged to wear black to Alexander Field. The first 300 fans in attendance receive a free #BeatIU T-shirt.
- Sunday: Boy, Girl and Cub Scouts are invited to cheer on the Boilermakers and earn a Purdue baseball patch by participating in activities during the game. Special $1 general admission youth tickets are available to all scouts. It's also a $12 family four pack game (2 adult tickets, 2 youth tickets for $12).
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue baseball's first home weekend of the season doubles as the Boilermakers' first opportunity to host their rivals since 2011, as Indiana makes its first-ever appearance at Alexander Field.
First pitch is slated for 6 p.m. ET on Friday and Saturday. Sunday's series finale is a 1 p.m. matinee. Fans are encouraged to wear black for Saturday's #BeatIU Blackout game at Alexander Field. The first 300 fans in attendance receive a free Purdue baseball T-shirt. The first two games of the series will be BTN Student U productions on BTN2Go.com and the BTN2Go app. MTC Sports will be offering a free multi-camera webcast of Sunday's game at video.ISCsportsnetwork.com the ISC Sports Network app.
The Indiana-Purdue rivalry in baseball dates back to 1888. The two rivals have squared off on the diamond 280 times over the years. The Boilermakers have played IU more than any other team in program history. But due to quirks in the Big Ten schedule related to the two waves of conference expansion, the two rivals have only met in the regular season only twice over the last five years. Both the 2014 and 2016 series were played in Bloomington.
Highlighted by a three-game series sweep at Lambert Field in the Hoosiers' last visit to West Lafayette (April 2011), Purdue won seven straight in the series from 2010 to 2012. But with its series sweeps in the last two weekend matchups, Indiana is now riding its longest win streak in the series since the 1970s (10 straight from 1971-77). The Hoosiers won a trio of one-run games against the Boilermakers last year in Bloomington.
The eight meetings over the last five years are the fewest over any five-year period in the Indiana-Purdue series since the rivals played only six times from 1968 to 1972. The Boilermakers have played 103 home games vs. 32 different teams since they last hosted Indiana.
Coach @Waz4412, @J_McGowan23 & @Evan_Warden preview the big weekend series vs. IU as the rivalry resumes. #BoilerUp https://t.co/2pYQHCUeRa
-- Purdue Baseball (@PurdueBaseball) April 6, 2017
Oddly, the Hoosiers and Fighting Illini -- Purdue's two closest rivals geographically -- are the final two Big Ten teams to visit Alexander Field, now in its fifth year. Illinois comes to town later this month (April 21-23) for the first time since April 2012. After being the only Big Ten team to play its first seven weekends on the road this season, Purdue is now scheduled to be at home for five of the next six weekends.
Since finishing second to Purdue in both the Big Ten standings and at the Big Ten Tournament in 2012, Indiana has emerged as one of the most consistent programs in the league. The Hoosiers have been to five straight Big Ten Tournaments, only one shy of Ohio State for the longest active streak in the league. By contrast, IU only qualified five times total from 1997 to 2011.
First-year head coach Mark Wasikowski had an opportunity to experience some of college baseball's finest rivals -- Florida-Florida State, Arizona-Arizona State and Oregon-Oregon State -- in his 20 years as an assistant coach. He now adds one of the Big Ten's fiercest rivalries to his résumé.
"Rivalries are only as strong as you make them," Wasikowski said. "If you don't play [well], rivalries go away. If you do play [well], then rivalries get stronger. The better that the two programs are, the better rivalry will be. It's our obligation to put a quality product on the field that's well prepared where we can live up to our end of the deal. I know Coach Lemonis is preaching the same thing down the road."
Having already exceeded last year's overall and Big Ten win totals despite playing 25 of their first 28 games on the road, Purdue has made great strides in performing at consistently competitive level. The next step needs to be winning at home regularly.
Entering the weekend, Purdue is just 26-53 at home since Alexander Field opened in 2013. The Boilermakers have won just three of their 18 home weekend series during that stretch, including just one in Big Ten play (vs. Penn State in May 2015). After winning last weekend's rubber game at Ohio State, Purdue has won more Big Ten series on the road (three) than it has at home since 2013. Conversely, the Boilermakers were under .500 at home only five times from 1980 through 2012.
HUNTER, LEARNARD STILL STREAKING
- Skyler Hunter and Ross Learnard have been Purdue's most consistent performers over the last month. Hunter has reached base safely in 18 consecutive games and Learnard has pitched 19 consecutive scoreless innings over his last 11 relief appearances.
- Hunter has reached base safely in every game since the start of the spring break trip, batting .375 (24-for-64) with a .419 on-base percentage during the 18-game streak. After delivering a two-run single in the sixth inning of the 2-1 win at Ohio State on April 2, he has driven in the go-ahead run in five of the Boilermakers' last 10 wins dating back to March 13. He has recorded a team-high 16 RBI over the last 15 games, batting .500 (9-for-18) with runners in scoring position during that stretch. He also scored the game-winning run in the March 28 walk-off victory vs. Kent State.
- Learnard's streak is the longest by a Purdue pitcher since Matt Bischoff worked 22 consecutive scoreless innings in 2007. Learnard did not allow an inherited base runner to score this season until the April 4 loss to Indiana State. For the season, he has stranded eight of nine inherited runners. He has earned two wins and a save during his streak while making seven of his 11 appearances in Purdue victories.
QUICK LOOK AT THE HOOSIERS
- Indiana has had four games go 11 innings this season, two of them ending in ties due to travel curfews. Sunday's IU-Nebraska game in Bloomington ended in a 1-1 tie after a travel curfew for the Huskers' flight home from Indianapolis to Omaha came into play. The Hoosiers also had a tie in their series finale at Florida Atlantic. In midweek play, like Purdue, they've beaten Ball State and lost to Indiana State.
- Canadian and JUCO transfer Matt Lloyd has had the greatest impact of any newcomer. He enters the weekend as the team triple crown leader (.333, 6 HR, 19 RBI). Lloyd has also excelled as a relief pitcher, surrendering just 12 hits in five innings while earning two wins and two saves in his eight appearances. Four-year starting outfielder Criag Dedelow has also hit six homers this season. Lafayette native Logan Sowers has 18 homers in his 2 ½ season as a Hoosier, but can also be very strikeout prone (33 Ks in 104 at-bats).
- Of the three right-handers expected to start on the mound for IU this weekend, Purdue faced only Sunday starter Pauly Milto last year. In the series finale, he retired seven of the 10 batters he faced after action resumed following a two-hour rain and lightning delay. Harry Shipley recorded a game-tying single in the eighth inning, but Sowers homered in the bottom of the frame to complete IU's big post-delay comeback. Milto (3.38 ERA) moved into the weekend rotation last weekend. Saturday starter Brian Hobbie has made a start each of the first seven weekends and pitches to contact effectively, recording just 18 strikeouts in 42 innings while sporting a .261 batting average against.
Midpoint of the season is here. Jacson McGowan & Evan Warden discuss the progress & improvement #Purdue has enjoyed. https://t.co/1p0LZnYNxB
-- Purdue Baseball (@PurdueBaseball) April 7, 2017