Purdue Weekend Sports Primer: April 5

There is a chance Purdue can win a national championship on the same day as a total solar eclipse. That feels somewhat poetic, but it would be the capper on a busy weekend for Purdue sports. Baseball is at Rutgers, where it will face a team that is considered to be on the Bubble right now for the NCAA Tournament. Purdue has struggled to close out wins in a recent stretch, but a series win over the Scarlet Knights would be huge and could vault Purdue into the tournament consideration.

Aside from the Final Four, That is the highlight of the sports weekend for Purdue.

Baseball – at Rutgers (Friday 6pm, Saturday 3pm, Sunday 1pm)

Softball – vs. Iowa (Friday 5pm, Saturday 2pm, Sunday 1pm)

Men’s Golf – Calusa Cup at Iowa (Sunday-Tuesday)

Men’s Tennis – Saturday at Michigan State. Sunday at Michigan

Women’s Tennis – Sunday vs. Nebraska

Track & Field – at Arizona (Jim Click Shootout Friday & Saturday)

Purdue (17-12, 2-4 Big Ten) at Rutgers (19-9, 1-2 Big Ten)

PROBABLE STARTING PITCHERS

Friday: Jordan Morales (Grad, LHP) vs. RU's Justin Sinibaldi (Sr, LHP)

Saturday: Luke Wagner (Sr, LHP) vs. RU's Zack Konstaninovsky (Fr, RHP)

Sunday: Jonathan Blackwell (Sr, LHP) vs. RU's Christian Coppola (So, RHP)

Purdue has three road series remaining on the season, and this is the only opponent left that is in the top 50 of the RPI. That means any postseason chances rely on a series win. Midseason projections by Baseball America and D1Baseball have Rutgers as a fringe NCAA Tournament team at the moment, so they have plenty to play for in the second half of the season. They began Big Ten play last weekend by dropping the final two games of a series with Michigan State.

Rutgers is the best hitting team in the conference. They are batting .330 as a team, led by Josh Kuroda-Grauer who is batting .413 with 29 RBI. Trevor Cohen is fifth in the conference in hitting at .386, giving them two of the five best hitters in the league.

Sinibaldi has been solid as their Friday starter too. He has a 2.83 ERA and is 4-0 on the year. Earlier this season he threw a complete game shutout in a win over UConn. Sunday starter Coppola is 4-2 on the season, but Purdue has a Saturday advantage with Wagner being 4-0 on the year.

Purdue’s pitching this season has seen great improvement. The Boilermakers are second in the league in ERA at 4.94, but much of the recent struggles have been the result of not getting the one big hit needed to win games. That’s what happened in the series losses to Iowa and Ohio State, while the midweek loss at Indiana State a week ago came when Purdue had the bases loaded and no one out in the ninth, but couldn’t get the tying run home.

This will be a tough weekend. Rutgers is not only the best hitting team in the league, they lead the conference in defensive metrics as well. If Purdue gets a series win it will be right back in the conference race, especially given the remaining schedule.

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