After last weekend’s sweep at the hands of USC Purdue baseball faces a huge weekend if it is going to get back on the good side of the NCAA Tournament bubble. This is the week that Purdue steps outside of the Big Ten since there are 17 baseball playing schools, so each week at least one team has a non-conference series. Purdue always tries to make it a home series, and it picked a solid team this season for said series in the Murray State Raiders.
Last season the Raiders were the story of the NCAA
Tournament. They got hot and won the automatic bid from the Missouri Valley Conference by beating Belmont, Southern Illinois, Illinois-Chicago, and Missouri State over four days to earn their first tournament bid since 2003. Once there, they made the absolute most of thier shot. As a four seed they stunned host Ole Miss and Georgia Tech in the first two games to reach the Oxford regional final at 2-0. They then split two games with the Rebels, winning the final 12-11 to take the regional in a winner-take-all game.
That already made it the best season in school history, as they had previously not won a tournament game since 1989. They then went to Duke and kept the run going by taking two of three from the Blue Devils to win a Super Regional and reach the College World Series. They lost to eventual national champion UCLA 6-4 in their first game in Omaha before they were no-hit in a 3-0 loss to Arkansas, but even at a “Two and some ‘cue” appearance they still had a tremendous season at 43-17.
This year is not quite as good. They come to West Lafayette with a 26-18 record and they lead the Missouri Valley Conference at 12-6, just ahead of Indiana State and Illinois-Chicago. They are not going to earn an automatic bid with an RPI of 145, but they could definitely return to the NCAAs with a conference tournament title again.
GAMEDAY INFORMATION
Murray State (27-18, 12-6 MVC) at Purdue (29-15, 15-9 Big Ten)
May 1-3 / Stream B1G+
Series Opener: Friday, May 1 at 6 p.m. ET
Middle Game: Saturday, May 2 at 2 p.m. ET
Series Finale: Sunday, May 3 at 1 p.m. ET
Alexander Field / West Lafayette, Indiana
PROBABLE PITCHING MATCHUPS
Friday: Cole Van Assen (Jr, RHP) vs. MSU’s Nic Schutte (Sr, RHP)
Saturday: Zach Erdman (Sr, LHP) vs. MSU’s Jacob Hustedde (Jr, RHP)
Sunday: Austin Klug (Sr, RHP) vs. MSU’s Drew Deremer (Jr, RHP)
SERIES HISTORY
All-Time: Murray State leads 36-17-2
All-Time in West Lafayette: First Meetings
Last Series: Purdue swept a 3-game set (March 2012 in Murray)
First meeting: Murray State 1, Purdue 0 (March 1961 in Murray)
The good news is that Purdue ended its four game losing streak with a 5-1 win over Southern Indiana. The sweep at the hands of USC got Purdue on the wrong side of the Bubble, however, and to earn an at large win the Boilers need a sheer volume of wins in the final 11 regular season games. at 29-15, 15-9 Purdue is solidly in the Big Ten Tournament field and can clinch a bid this weekend if teams like Illinois (at Iowa), Minnesota (at Penn State), and Rutgers (at USC) lose in their series.
Purdue needs a series win this weekend against a conference leader, and a sweep would be even better. I would say Purdue needs to go at least 8-3 down the stretch to be in the discussion for a bid, and that discussion is over if it loses this series.
