It might be February, but this week marks the real beginning of Purdue’s spring sports. Softball started its 2025 season down in Texas this past weekend. Baseball will start its season in Texas this week in Sugar Land, Texas. Tennis and track are not outside yet, but they are in full swing as the spring sports begin the turn towards home.

Let’s begin Boilermusings with a look at the Big Ten basketball race.

With seven games left the Big Ten is there for the taking for Purdue. It appears to be a three team race between Purdue, Michigan, and Michigan State, as those three schools have just two losses and everyone else has at least four. Any championship will be earned in the final seven games, as the Boilermakers have a very tough finishing kick.

Purdue must face all four teams immediately behind them in Michigan, Michigan State, Wisconsin, and UCLA. Two of those games are in West Lafayette, but even that doesn’t guarantee anything. If Purdue sweeps all four of those games it is hard to see them losing the league title.

Another outlier is that Michigan and Michigan State still have to face each other twice, so there are two losses there to hand out even before you factor in what Purdue does. The Wolverines come first. They have won four straight since getting blown out in West Lafayette and Tuesday night is pretty much a must-win if they want to hang in the race long term. Michigan State has six games against top 25 teams in the last seven.

If I had to guess I would say that 16-4 would be enough to win at least a share of the conference. 15-5 is also going to give a team a good shot. Purdue is probably the favorite there. The Boilermakers already have five road wins locked in Purdue will be favored in its remaining three home games. I would also say Purdue is probably a favorite at Indiana in a few weeks as well. Three more home wins and 1-2 wins on the road will probably be enough to hang another Big Ten banner.

Softball Starts 2025 Season

Purdue began the 2025 softball season with six games down in College Station, Texas at the Aggie Classic, including a pair of games against the No. 8 ranked hosts. The Boilers dropped both games to Texas A&M via mercy rule 11-2 and 11-0 in five innings, but split the other four to start the year 2-4.

The first victory came on Friday against Villanova by a 7-5 score. Alivia Meeks had a three-run home run to start the scoring in the third and Julia Gossett later had a two RBI double in the sixth that put the Boilermakers in front for good after giving up a grand slam in the top of the inning. Khloe Banks finished the say 3 for 3 from the leadoff spot with a pair of runs scored.

The second win of the weekend came in the form of a five-inning one-hitter thrown by Madi Elish on Saturday as Purdue beat Abilene Christian 11-0. Kyndall Bailey drove in four runs at the plate and scored twice to power the offense. It took just three innings for Purdue to move ahead 11-0

The other two losses were a 6-1 loss against No. 20 Baylor and a 4-3 loss in extra innings against Utah State. Purdue will stay on the road this week as it face Dartmouth (twice), NC State (twice), and Louisville in the Florida Atlantic tournament in Boca Raton.

Wrestling Earns Dual Split

Purdue wrestling headed north this past weekend and earned a split in its dual matches, with the Sunday loss at Minnesota coming with Matt Ramos and Joey Blaze on the sidelines. Ramos was available on Friday as Purdue rolled past Wisconsin 33-7.

Ramos had no trouble in his match, earning an 11-2 win to give Purdue an early lead. Greyson Clark won at 141 pounds 7-2 and he was followed by Isaac Ruble’s 11-2 qin at 149. Purdue took the final five singles matches of the evening as Stoney Buell, Brody Baumann, Orlando Cruz, Ben Vanadia, and Hayden Filipovich all earned victories. Baumann’s win came in overtime, while Filipovich and Cruz each won via pin.

Vanadia and Dustin Norris delivered wins against Minnesota on Sunday, but as a team Purdue fell to the Gophers 35-6.

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