- Purdue Series Notes(.PDF)
| Craig Clark enters this weekend fourth in the Big Ten in ERA and second in strikeouts. |
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; May 4, 2007 - After having their scheduled midweek game against Villanova rained out on Tuesday, the Nittany Lion baseball team will once again try to open up the month of May this weekend as they host Purdue.
This weekend's series will be played on Saturday and Sunday due to Purdue having exams this week and Penn State having exams next week. Both days will consist of doubleheaders, with Saturday featuring a nine-inning game followed by a seven-inning contest and Sunday consisting of a seven-inning game followed by a nine-inning game. Penn State enters the weekend tied for third place in the Big Ten with Ohio State with an 11-7 conference record.
The Nittany Lions and Boilermakers have split series in each of the last three seasons, twice in West Lafayette and once in State College. This will be Purdue's first trip to State College since the 2004 season. Last year, the Boilermakers won the first two games of the series, which was played on a Saturday through a Monday, and then Penn State salvaged the split by taking the final two games. One win was behind a complete-game, three-hit shutout by Seth Whitehill while the other featured a gutty performance by Craig Clark and some clutch relief out of the bullpen by Matt Ogrodnik and one of only two appearances as a pitcher on the year for Scott Gaffney.
The Nittany Lions have not played since Sunday when they wrapped up their series at Indiana. Prior to Sunday's game, Penn State had gone six straight games without committing an error, its longest such streak since 1994. That string moved the Nittany Lions up to fourth in the Big Ten in fielding percentage.
Penn State's offense has picked up some steam in recent games as the Nittany Lions have raised their team batting average by 26 points from .256 to .282 over the last 15 games. PSU also had 10 or more hits in 13 of its last 20 games.
Saturday's doubleheader gets underway at 4:05 p.m. while Sunday's will begin at 3:05 p.m.