Last week was a get-right week for Purdue baseball. After losing eight in a row the Boilers took two of three from visiting Rutgers over the weekend. On Monday Purdue gots its biggest win of the season as CJ Richmond's walk-off two-run home run gave them a nice 8-6 midweek victory over a very good Arizona State team.

Purdue improved to 23-13 overall on the season with the win, and it enters this weekend's series with Penn State at 5-10 in league play.

Purdue (23-13, 5-10 Big Ten) at Penn State (22-13, 10-8 Big Ten)

Medlar Field / University Park, Pa.

Series Opener: Friday, April 18 at 5:30 p.m. ET

Middle Game: Saturday, April 19 at 2 p.m. ET

Series Finale: Sunday, April 20 at 1 p.m. ET

PROBABLE PITCHING MATCHUPS

Friday: Carter Doorn (Sr, RHP) vs. PSU's Ryan DeSanto (Jr, LHP)

Saturday: Cole Van Assen (So, RHP) vs. PSU's Mason Horwat (So, RHP)

Sunday: TBA for Purdue vs. PSU's Logan Olson (Jr, LHP)

Purdue is most likely out of the entire Big Ten race barring a miracle finish. Iowa leads the conference at 14-4 while UCLA is 12-3 and has played it way into the top 15 of the national rankings. Purdue also likely needs a long winning streak to reach the NCAA Tournament. Despite being 10 games over .500, Purdue's RPI is extremely weak at 149. The Boilers have played only three games against tier 1 compeition, and they were the three losses to UCLA. To have pretty much any chance at an at large bid Purdue would likely need to finish on a tear and win at least 15 of the remaining 19 games, similar to how it made the field in 2018.

Purdue is in a dogfight for a top 12 finish in the conference and a spot in the expanded Big Ten Tournament in Omaha. The Boilers are a game behind Rutgers and Michigan State for the final spot, but last weekend's series win does give Purdue the tiebreaker over the Scarlet Knights. After facing Illinois Purdue will head to Illinois before hosting Northwestern. Their final two conference series are at Indiana and home for Nebraska.

Purdue starters Carter Doorn and Cole Van Assen were excellent last week against Rutgers. They only surrendered a single run between them, and Van Assen threw seven scoreless innings before the one batter he faced in the eighth later scored. Doorn's matchup with DeSanto (6-1) tonight features two of the league's best starters. Reliever Michael Vallone has also been excellent out of the pen.

It will be interesting to see how the Monday win boosts Purdue. The Boilers came from behind three times against a likely NCAA Tournament team. The Boilers have also been close in their 13 losses, with seven coming by two runs or less. Another series win will have Purdue in a great position to make the Big Ten Tourney.

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