Purdue baseball returns to NCAA, gets No. 2 seed in Chapel Hill
More: Purdue's 'magical' Big Ten run ends with loss in title game
Purdue's run continues.
The Boilermakers are in the NCAA Tournament for only the third time in their history, being selected Monday afternoon to the Chapel Hill Regional, hosted by No. 6 national seed North Carolina. Purdue (37-19), the No. 2 seed, will play third-seeded Houston (36-23) at 7 p.m. ET Friday in a four-team double-elimination weekend.
The winner advances to play the winner of the Deland Regional, hosted by Stetson, in a best-of-three Super Regional.
The Boilermakers, once 16-16 in mid-April, rallied to win 21 of their final 24 games, finishing Sunday on the brink of the Big Ten Tournament Championship. They lost to Minnesota, a NCAA regional host, 6-4 on Sunday in Omaha, Neb., breaking a seven-game winning streak.
Purdue has made NCAA Tournaments only twice before, in 2012 and 1987, with its only victory against Valparaiso in '12.
It was only two seasons ago that the Boilermakers won only two Big Ten games. But second-year coach Mark Wasikowski has helped to orchestrate an impressively quick turnaround. Purdue was back in the Big Ten Tournament, with 29 overall wins, in his first season in 2017 and now this.
"I think the new coaching staff and all the players they’ve brought in," said junior Jacson McGowan, who was part of the 10-win 2016 team, "not to talk bad about the other staff and other players, it’s just new environment, everyone has come together as a team. It’s even more of a family. We became more close, even over the last month.”
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