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Boilers travel to MSU for
series
By Seth Schwartz
Senior
Writer
The Purdue baseball team will travel to East Lansing,
Mich., to play a four-game series against Michigan State in the midst
of their first winning streak of the season.
The Boilermakers (7-13, 1-2 Big Ten) are coming
off wins against Minnesota, 6-4, and Valparaiso, 15-4. The two wins
are the first consecutive wins up to this point in the season. The team
hopes to extend the streak against Michigan State (12-8, 2-1 Big Ten),
although Purdue coach Doug Schreiber knows that will be a challenge.
"(Michigan State's) going to be a good hitting
team," said Schreiber. "Pitching-wise, they’ll be solid enough.
They’ll just be like any other Big Ten team."
Michigan State has put up big innings this year,
most recently against Illinois.
"Maybe they have that type of offense and
the firepower to have big innings," Schreiber said. "That seven spot
in the second for us (Tuesday against Valparaiso) was maybe the first
big inning that we’ve had all year, at least in that many runs."
Michigan State has had a good season since playing
five very competitive games against two of the toughest teams in the
nation, Troy State and Florida State. The Spartans lost all five of
those games, but they stayed close in all of them.
Those two series may have given the Spartans a
jump on the rest of their competition, as they won 12 of their last
15 games. A couple of those included non-Division I games, but they
also won two out of three at Illinois last weekend.
Rightfielder/catcher Nick McIntyre said that he
didn’t know too much about Michigan State.
"I heard they’re a lot like us,"
he said. "They like to hit and run. We’ll just go out there
and hopefully play our best."
Ben Quick (1-3) will start Friday’s game at
Kobs Field on the Michigan State campus, while the rest of the games
will be played in Lansing, Mich., at Oldsmobile Park, home of the Lansing
Lugnuts, a minor league baseball team.
Chadd Blasko (2-3) will pitch the first game on
Saturday, David Gassner (1-3) will start the second and Sean O’Neil
(1-2) will pitch on Sunday for the Boilermakers. Gassner pitched a complete
game last week in the team’s only win against Minnesota and Sean
O’Neil pitched four innings and gave up only one run on three hits.
"Our pitching is going to have to match up
against their offense," Schreiber said. "But I feel very good
about what our starters are doing and the guys coming in relief; we
feel like we’ll be heading in very confident."
Michigan State leads the all-time series against
Purdue, 61-49, but last year the Boilers won three out of four games
in West Lafayette against the Spartans. McIntyre said the Boilers need
to hit more aggressively.
"This year our offense has been real inconsistent,"
he said. "We really haven’t put up a lot of big numbers. Other
than that, we know that we’ve got to come out and be aggressive
every day and play like we did against Valparaiso against all opponents."
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Final
Four Coverage:
ND-Purdue
matchup offers team balance
Boilers
hope to overcome December Irish loss with maturity
Two
state teams battle for title in St. Louis
What
happened in December matchup?
Rebounding
pushes Purdue to title game
Stopping
Lady Bears' leader was top priority
Notre
Dame 90, Connecticut 75
Purdue
vs. Notre Dame for NCAA championship
Friday
Coverage:
Hoosier
teams prepare for Final Four
Boilers
battle Bears tonight
Notre
Dame, Connecticut matchup draws attention
Keady
agrees to contract extension through 2005
Tennis
team looks to beat Illinois
Boilers
hope to overthrow IU tennis team
Outdoor
track teams prepare for Purdue Open
Boilers
travel to MSU for series
Softball
to open Big Ten season
Boilers
hope experience pays off this weekend
Final
Four ticket demand exceeds school’s supply
Golfer
earns Big Ten honor
SPORTS DESK PHONE:
(765) 743-1111
ext. 251
Sports editor:
Paul Trembacki
Assistant sports
editor:
Anne
McLaren
To
send a letter to the editor, please email opinions@purdueexponent.org
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