Last week I made a lot out of this weekend’s baseball series with USC. Purdue went on the road needing a good weekend against the best team left on the schedule.
Instead, it went 0-3 and is now on a four game losing streak.
Here is the quick recap of the weekend:
Friday: USC 4, Purdue 3
This was Purdue’s best shot at taking a win over the weekend, as the Boilers led 3-2 through five innings. The Trojans scored a pair in the sixth and were able to fend off bases loaded situations in both the eighth and ninth
to hold on for the win. Westin Boyle grounded out with the bases loaded to end the eighth to end that threat. With the bases loaded and one out in the ninth Purdue could not push across the tying run, wasting a leadoff double from CJ Richmond.
Saturday: USC 6, Purdue 1
USC starter Grant Govel throw an absolute gem, striking out eight and allowing a single baserunner through seven innings as USC built an early 5-0 lead off of three in the first and two in the third. The Boilers did finally get on the board in the ninth with Eli Anderson scored on a one-out groundout, but Govel completely handcuffed the Boilers for eight innings.
Sunday: USC 11. Purdue 4
Home runs by Avery Moore and Aaron Manias got the Boilers off to a hot start and a 3-0 lead after a half inning, but Purdue would not score again until a CJ Richmond home run in the ninth. Austin Klug was tagged for four runs in the bottom of the first and did not make it out of the third inning. The Trojans blew the game open in the eighth with four runs, pushing a 7-3 lead to 11-3 and making Richmond’s home run moot.
The overall result of the weekend is frustrating. Purdue desperately could have used a win in Friday’s game, and they are now likely on the bad side of the bubble for the NCAA Tournament with 12 games to go. In order to make the field now there is a very thin margin for error.
Purdue’s RPI did not take a huge hit, as USC is ninth in that metric, but Purdue sits at 65 with the season closing series against Iowa (68) as the only top 100 games left. Purdue still has a solid record at 28-15 overall and is solidly in the Big Ten Tournament field at 15-9. That has an interesting format as the top four seeds automatically advance to the single elimination quarterfinals, while seeds 5-12 play a double elimination qualification round for the last four quarterfinal spots. Given the dearth of Purdue’s starting pitching getting a top 4 spot would be huge. Purdue is currently in fifth place and does not have the tiebreakers with Oregon and USC in the top four.
If I had to guess I would say Purdue needs to go at least 9-3 before the Big Ten Tournament to have a shot at the NCAAs, and winning a game or two once there would help as well.
