First-place Purdue prepares for Illinois series

By Paul Trembacki
Sports Editor

A year later, Purdue and Illinois have reversed roles.

Last baseball season, the Fighting Illini came to West Lafayette with the best record in the Big Ten and got swept by underdog Purdue.

Heading into this weekend's four-game series in Champaign, Ill., the first-place Boilers (20-15, 11-3 Big Ten) are no longer the predators; they're the prey.

"These guys are going to be hungry for us," Purdue coach Doug Schreiber said. "It's going to be a bit of a challenge for them to try to get us and knock us down a little bit."

The Illini (19-18, 7-8) are a game ahead of Iowa for sixth place in the conference, which is as low as they can place and still secure a Big Ten tournament berth. The top six teams in the conference qualify for the Big Ten tournament and the regular-season conference champion hosts the event. Purdue holds a one-game lead over Ohio State heading into this weekend.

"I like being the guy on top, but we can't go in there thinking we're in first, they're in sixth," Schreiber said. "Illinois is going to be a tough opponent, a quality opponent. They're coached well, they're hard-nosed and they've probably got a little chip on their shoulders."

Illinois coach Richard Jones entered this season ranked 10th among active NCAA Division I coaches in wins, with a career record of 1,116-641.

The Illini were leading the league in runs with 83 in 11 conference games before being held down by Iowa last weekend. The Hawkeyes and the Illini split a four-game series, but Iowa won both of its games by shutout. Illinois played Wednesday and lost 6-5 at Illinois-Chicago.

Purdue has won 16 of its last 19 games, including 11 of the last 12 in the Big Ten. The Boilers beat Illinois State 16-6 Wednesday at home.

"It's a real good feeling for us, being in first place, but the most important thing for us is to worry about Purdue, not worry about other teams," said catcher David Harrell, who had three RBIs in the game and is one of the Big Ten's co-players of the week. "If we worry about ourselves and do what we’re supposed to do, everything will work out for itself."

Purdue has two weekend series of Big Ten play after this weekend, so Schreiber said it might be a little early to start talking about the postseason.

"We can't think about where we're at in the standings," Schreiber said. "We need to know going in that Illinois is a quality team.

"We can't worry about what we need to do to stay in first. We just need to worry about making each pitch and each play."

The players are wary of becoming overconfident.

"We're confident but we know what we've got to do," said pitcher Adam Green, who got the win in the victory over Illinois State.

"We know we've got to keep our heads down, keep playing the games, keep playing hard, keep swinging the bats, keep throwing the strikes and keep playing baseball the way it's supposed to be played."

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Sports editor:
Paul Trembacki

Assistant sports editor:
Anne McLaren

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