University of Minnesota Athletics
Home Season Begins Against Purdue at Target Field
3/31/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
The Minnesota baseball team will host Purdue in its first home series of the year at Target Field on Apr. 1-2. The Gophers will host the Boilermakers in the first game on Friday, Apr. 1 at 1:05 p.m. and in a doubleheader on Saturday, Apr. 2 at 1:05 p.m.
Live audio of all three games can heard live on the Gold Zone for free. All of the Gophers' remaining audio broakcasts this season will be free.
Minnesota enters the week with an 8-8 record after going 1-1 against Cal Poly last week. The Gophers lost the series opener 5-1 on Mar. 25 and won the second game 9-4 on Mar. 27. Minnesota is led by Nick O'Shea who is batting .405 with a home run and 10 RBI. Junior shortstop AJ Pettersen is also batting .353 with a team-best 13 runs, five doubles, four RBI and four stolen bases. Pettersen has a 19-game hitting streak entering the week, which is tied for the third-longest hitting streak by a Gopher player since 1998. Justin Gominsky is also batting .355 with 11 runs and six stolen bases, while Trip Schultz has 10 RBI and is batting .326.
Minnesota will start sophomore TJ Oakes against Purdue's Matt Morgan on Apr. 1. Oakes is 1-3 with a 3.54 ERA and has 18 strikeouts in 28.0 innings. In the first game on Saturday, the Gophers will start senior Phil Isaksson against Boilermaker starter Jon Haase. Isaksson is 1-1 with a 2.55 ERA and has 12 strikeouts in 24.2 innings. In the second game of the series on Saturday, Minnesota will start Austin Lubinsky against Purdue's Brad Schreiber. Lubinsky is 2-3 with a 7.84 ERA and has 17 strikeouts in 20.2 innings.
Golden Gopher closer Scott Matyas enter the week 1-0 with four saves, a 0.00 ERA and 15 strikeouts in 10.1 innings. Matyas has not given up a run in the last 18.2 innings he has pitched dating back to 2010, which has spanned 11 appearances (four last year and seven this year). He has given up one run in his last 21 appearances dating back to 2010, which has spanned 29.2 innings.
Purdue enters the week with a 16-8 overall record. Last week, the Boilermakers split an abbreviated two-game against Bradley. Minnesota lost at Bradley 9-4 in the first game, and won at home 12-1. Purdue also defeated IPFW 8-1 on Mar. 29. The Boilermakers enter the series batting .327 as a team. Purdue is led by Kevin Plawecki who is batting .402 with 21 runs and 16 RBI. Eric Charles leads the team in RBI with 21, and is batting .316 with 20 runs. Stephen Talbot has team-highs in runs (25) and stolen bases (11), and is batting .304. Tyler Spillner is also batting .370 with 23 runs, a team-best three home runs and 15 RBI.
Pitching wise, the Boilermakers are led by Morgan who is 4-0 with a 1.29 ERA and has 20 strikeouts in 21.0 innings. Morgan is holding the opposition to a .195 batting average. Schreiber is also 4-0 with a 3.75 ERA and has 38 strikeouts in 36.0 innings. Joe Haase is 2-1 with a 3.86 ERA and has 18 strikeouts in 25.2 innings. Nick Wittgren is 1-2 with a team-high three saves to go with a 6.14 ERA?and 22 strikeouts in 22.0 innings.
Purdue is coached by Doug Schreiber who is 359-336 in his 13th year as the Boilermakers head coach. Minnesota leads the all-time series 104-49-2 against Purdue. Last year, the Gophers lost 3-2 in 10 innings in the Big Ten opener, but bounced back to win 14-5 and 9-7 in the next two games. Minnesota’s loss to Purdue in that season opener was the last time Scott Matyas has blown a save.
