A week ago Purdue baseball was was sitting at 20-4 overall and facing a big home series agaisnt a top 25 UCLA team. It was a chance to not only get some quality wins for the NCAA Tournament profile, but make a statement in the Big Ten race. The Bruins ended up sweeping Purdue, winning two competitive games on Friday before a Sunday blowout. Things then got worse in the midweek as Purdue dropped the final game of its lengthy homestand to Northern Illinois 2-1 in a game where it left 10 runners on base.

That dropped Purdue to 20-8 on the season at the midway point and 3-6 in the Big Ten. The Boilers are now trying to get back on track with a long trip to Washington this weekend.

Purdue (20-8, 3-6 Big Ten) at Washington (13-17, 5-4 Big Ten)

April 4-6 / Stream B1G+

Husky Ballpark / Seattle, Washington

Series Opener: Friday, April 4 at 10 p.m. ET

Middle Game: Saturday, April 5 at 10 p.m. ET

Series Finale: Sunday, April 6 at 2:30 p.m. ET

All-Time Series: First Meetings

PROBABLE PITCHING MATCHUPS

Friday: Carter Doorn (Sr, RHP) vs. UW's Max Banks (Sr, RHP)

Saturday: TBA for Purdue vs. UW's Jackson Thomas (Sr, RHP)

Sunday: TBA for Both Teams

Washington's wild season of travel saw it win a series at Nebraska, a home series over Maryland, and it lost a road series to Rutgers. In case you just arrived here from 2020, yes, those are all Big Ten games. They have not been great thus far and they even have a non-Division I loss to Pacific Lutheran. Still, they are a respectable 5-4 in the Big Ten.

Even with the struggles Tuesday against Northern Illinois, Purdue's hitting has been strong overall. Lukas Cook and Logan Sutter enter the weekend leading the Big Ten in a pair of offensive categories. Cook is first in batting average (.465) and hits (46) while Sutter is tops in the conference in doubles (13) and OPS (1.330). Cook is also fourth nationally in average as of April 2. They have led Purdue to having one of the best offenses in the Big Ten, while Washington statisitcally has the conference's worst offense.

Their pitching has been able to get it done on conference games, at least. Washington does not have a hitter in the top 40 of the conference individually. They did socre 22 runs earlier this week in a midweek game at St. John's they picked up on the way back from Rutgers.

After last weekend Purdue's pitching is a concern. After starting the season strong UCLA torched Purdue pitching for 36 runs in three games. The Boilermakers will have to do better if they want to make the NCAA Tournament.

The good news is that the remaining schedule does not have anything as challenging as the UCLA series. There are chances to stack wins and build the profile, but it has to begin this weekend.

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