| WEEKEND STREAMING GUIDE (all times ET) |
| Baseball |
| Friday / 6 p.m. / Northwestern / BTN2Go |
| Saturday / 6 p.m. / Northwestern / BTN2Go |
| Sunday / 1 p.m. / Northwestern / BTN2Go |
| Softball |
| Saturday / 6 p.m. / Nebraska / BTN2Go |
| Sunday / 1 p.m. / Nebraska / BTN2Go |
| Monday / Noon / Nebraska / BTN2Go |
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Winners of its last seven games in April, the baseball team begins May sky-high.
The Boilermakers (25-18, 9-6 B1G) boast a 15-win improvement from last season, which is the best in the country and tops in school history, with 12 regular-season games remaining.
Purdue plays host to Northwestern (17-26, 6-9) at Alexander Field this weekend, with games at 6 p.m. ET today and tomorrow and 1 p.m. Sunday. The Boilermakers are in a four-way tie for third place in Big Ten standings, merely percentage points behind second-place Nebraska (9-5-1) and just two and a half games behind front-running Maryland (13-5).
The Boilermakers' seven-game winning streak is currently the longest in the Big Ten and third longest nationally. Purdue has not trailed for 57 consecutive innings, dating to the seventh inning of an April 19 comeback victory at Indiana State, which ignited the current surge.
On Friday, the first 500 fans will receive a 1960s-era Purdue Pete bobblehead. Purdue Athletics will honor military and service staff Saturday, with $1 general admission tickets for active/retired military, police, fire fighters and other emergency personnel. And Sunday is the popular Bark and the Park, with fans invited to bring their dogs to the game and the first 500 receiving a dog tag. Also Sunday, the first 500 fans receive set two (of three) of Purdue baseball cards.
Men's Tennis NCAA Tournament Bound
Men's tennis (20-12) has earned a berth in the NCAA Tournament.
The Boilermakers, who won six of their final seven matches, will face Columbia (17-4) in the first round May 12 in Charlottesville, Virginia. Monmouth (13-11) and the host and No. 2 seed Virginia (28-1) round out the four-team regional, with the first-round winners set to square off May 13.
Purdue is postseason bound for the first time since 2014.
Redshirt junior Gergely Madarasz was named first team All-Big Ten for the second straight season. Three of his 17 singles wins and five of his 20 doubles victories have come over current ranked opponents. Madarasz himself has been ranked as high No. 32 in singles and No. 4 in doubles in 2017.
Men's Golf Home for NCAA Regional
Men's golf earned the No. 7 seed in the NCAA West Lafayette (Indiana) Regional, which will be played May 15 to 17 at the Kampen Course.
The 38th-ranked Boilermakers will make their fourth straight regional appearance under head coach Rob Bradley. Purdue has advanced to 28 NCAA Championships, the third-most among northern schools (Ohio State 46 and BYU 30) and the second-most among Big Ten schools.
There are 13 teams in the regional, which will play 54 holes, and the top five squads will advance to the NCAA Championships, to be contested May 26 to 31 in Sugar Grove, Illinois.
The Kampen Course has hosted the 2008 men's national championships, 2004 men's regional, 2003 women's national championships and 2001 women's regional.
Following the team's fourth-place finish at the Big Ten Championships on April 30, seniors Fernando Barco and Austin Eoff were named second team all-conference. Barco boasts the second-best season stroke average in Purdue history at 72.23 and has five top-20 finishes in nine events. Eoff ranks third on the school season stroke average list at 72.38 and is the third Boilermaker to earn All-Big Ten honors four times (also Lenny Hartlage, 1984-87 and Peter Richardson, 2004-07).
Softball Wraps up Regular Season at Home
Softball (17-35, 6-14 B1G) plays its final three regular-season games against Nebraska (24-25, 13-7) at Bittinger Stadium tomorrow (6 p.m. ET), Sunday (1 p.m.) and Monday (noon).
In addition to the games, there are myriad activities in store: Alumni Day tomorrow, the formal dedication of Bittinger Stadium on Sunday and Senior Day on Monday. The Boilermakers will recognize seniors Kristen Hoppman, Katie Johnson and Lexi Valone.
Drake Relays Recap
The track & field teams won five titles at the Drake Relays in less-than-ideal weather conditions April 29 and 30:
* Symone Black: women's 400-meter hurdles - 58.91 seconds
* Obokhare Ikpefan: men's 400-meter hurdles - 51.20 seconds
* Women's 4x200-meter relay (Carmiesha Cox, Savannah Roberson, Myia Dorsey and Chloe Abbott) - 1:35.37
* Women's 4x400-meter relay (Jahneya Mitchell, Brionna Thomas, Cox and Abbott) - 3:34.31
* Women's shuttle hurdle relay (Devynne Charlton, Roberson, Black and Shantyra Delaney) - 53.85 seconds
Black and Ikpefan became the just the second duo from the same school to sweep the 400-meter hurdles in Drake Relays history.
In addition, Charlton broke the school 100-meter hurdles record with a wind-legal (+1.0) time of 12.89 seconds, which ranks tops in the Big Ten, sixth in the country and in the top 20 in the world this year. She was named the Big Ten Track Athlete of the Week.
The Boilermakers next compete May 12 to 14 at the Big Ten Championships in University Park, Pennsylvania.
Boilermakers Named to U.S. Collegiate National Team
Three Purdue volleyball players have been selected to the U.S. Collegiate National Team-Minneapolis. Redshirt senior Ashley Evans, redshirt junior Sherridan Atkinson and junior Brooke Peters will train and compete alongside 33 of the nation's top players from June 22 to 26.
The CNT-Minneapolis squad is part of USA Volleyball's High Performance pipeline and is considered a second tryout for the U.S. Women's National Team. Following the five-day training session, athletes will be assigned to one of three 12-member teams and compete in a round-robin tournament at the Minneapolis Convention Center from June 27 to 30.
Football NFL Draft Streak Reaches 20
Football's streak of at least one player being selected in the NFL Draft reached 20 consecutive years when wide receiver DeAngelo Yancey was taken by the Green Bay Packers in the fifth round (No. 175 overall) on April 29.
Forty-seven Boilermakers have been drafted since the streak began in 1998.
Yancey is the first Purdue wide receiver chosen since Vinny Sutherland by the Atlanta Falcons in the fifth round of the 2001 draft and the first Boilermaker selected by the Packers since Mike Neal in the second round in 2010.
On Purdue's career lists, Yancey ranks seventh with 2,344 receiving yards and 20 receiving touchdowns and 16th with 141 receptions. He earned second team All-Big Ten honors as a senior.
Four other Boilermakers hooked up with NFL clubs after the draft: offensive guard Jason King (New England Patriots), wide receiver Cameron Posey (Carolina Panthers) offensive guard Jordan Roos (Seattle Seahawks) and wide receiver Domonique Young (New York Jets).
Athletics Department Announces Summer Interns
The athletics department has selected eight student-athletes to serve as interns in various areas this summer.
The fourth-year internship program, coordinated by Laura Schnell, assistant director for academic support services, aims to provide student-athletes real-world experience working within a university athletics department and help them in their desired career paths.
Two marketing & promotions and John R. Wooden Leadership Institute interns were selected. The four other intern positions are housed in communications, compliance, the John Purdue Club and the ticket office.
New Video Boards Set for Mackey Arena
Purdue Athletics will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Mackey Arena in 2017-18 with the installation of a series of new LED video boards. They will further enhance what is widely regarded as the top basketball gameday experience in the country.
Included will be a center-hung four-sided display with an accompanying halo video ring, four "corner" statistics boards and two ribbon boards at both the north and south ends of the arena.
The center-hung display will feature four 20-feet wide by 13-feet tall six-millimeter LED video boards. The halo ring will measure 109-feet in circumference by three-feet tall with a 10-millimeter LED display.
The statistics boards will measure 20-feet wide by 11.5-feet tall each (10-millimeter LED), with their adjacent ribbon boards 50-feet wide by 3-feet tall each (also 10-millimeter LED).
Mackey's current center-hung display has four video boards measuring 13.5-feet by 7.75-feet each with 12-millimeter display, while its three statistics boards are 19-feet by 5-feet each with 23-millimeter display. There are no halo ring or ribbon boards presently.
The new video boards follow the installation of a new LED lighting system, which was installed prior to the 2015-16 season.
Total cost for the video board components is expected to be $1.9 million, which will be paid for entirely with gift funds. Fundraising will continue in an effort to further enrich Mackey with additional projects and for promotional activities around the 50-year celebration.
The boards were designed by Anthony James Partners of Richmond, Virginia, and will be manufactured and installed by Daktronics of Brookings, South Dakota. Anthony James Partners has designed and managed the installation of video displays for numerous collegiate and professional teams, including Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oregon, the Green Bay Packers and Portland Trailblazers.
Etcetera
No. 7 seed women's golf begins play in the NCAA Columbus (Ohio) Regional on May 8. The top six teams (among 18) in the three-day tournament advance to the NCAA Championships ... The May 18 and 19 Purdue-Minnesota baseball games in Minneapolis have been added to the BTN's live television schedule. Both games are slated to begin at 7:30 p.m. ET ... Former Purdue athletics director and swimming & diving alum Morgan Burke has been honored for his contributions to the sport with the Charles McCaffree Award from the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America. The McCaffree Award is presented annually to an individual connected to the sport of swimming & diving who has achieved outstanding success outside of the pool ... Congratulations to assistant athletic trainers Stephanie and Adam Leech on the birth of their son, Kyler, on April 28 ... The Purdue men's and women's tennis teams received the NCAA Public Recognition Award for posting a multi-year Academic Progress Rate (APR) among the top 10 percent of their sports. Women's tennis received the award for the third consecutive year, while men's tennis garnered its first such honor. In addition, due to a change in the adjustment criteria for the retention point for student-athletes who transfer institutions, the volleyball team's APR is in the process of being adjusted by the NCAA to 1,000. When it is, volleyball will be among the 93 teams that have earned Public Recognition Awards every year of the 12-year old program and an even more select group that has never lost an APR point. The APR is an annual scorecard of academic achievement calculated for all Division I sports teams ... Former golfer Laura Gonzalez Escallon (2010-13) upset No. 1 seed In Gee Chun in the Juli Inkster bracket of the Lorena Ochoa Match Play in Mexico yesterday. Escallon is the world's 270th-ranked player and will face Michelle Wie today ... Former women's basketball player Alex Guyton (2009-12) has been hired as an assistant coach at Eastern Illinois ... Former soccer player Katie Bittner (2013-16) has been hired as head girls' soccer coach at Harrison High School in West Lafayette.