April 11, 2008
University Park, Pa. - Looking to seize the momentum created by a blowout win in the final game of last weekend's series against Michigan and the close one-run win over Pittsburgh this week, the Penn State baseball team will hit the road once again this weekend as the Nittany Lions travel to Purdue for their second Big Ten road series of the year.
Penn State (10-17, 3-5 Big Ten) has not lost a Big Ten series to the Boilermakers since the 2002 season. The teams split their series from 2004-06 and Penn State won the series in both 2003 and last year, taking three out of four from the Boilers at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park. Purdue (14-14, 6-2 Big Ten) has been tough at home this year, compiling a 9-1 record at Lambert Field. The Boilers have taken three out of four games from both Iowa and Northwestern to open the Big Ten season.
The Nittany Lions are scheduled to shake up their starting rotation a bit this weekend from the first two weekends of Big Ten play. Ryan Stobart, who has started the last two Sunday games, is slated to get the start on Friday to open the series. Saturday's duo of Mike Wanamaker and Mike Lorentson is scheduled to remain the same, while Sunday's starter is TBA. There are a few options that exist. Seth Whitehill, who has been a starter in each of the past two seasons and started the Friday game on the first two Big Ten weekends, has a career ERA of 0.00 and a record of 2-0 against Purdue in 14 innings of work. Junior college transfer T.J. Macy, who is yet to appear in a game this year, is also on the trip and sophomore John Karr, who started his first career Big Ten game against the Boilermakers last year and ended the season in the starting rotation, is also an option. He made his first appearance of the season at Pitt on Wednesday and struck out the side in his inning of work.
This weekend will likely see some history made as first baseman Cory Wine is just six putouts away from breaking the school record for career putouts. He has 1188 while the record is 1193.