| WEEKEND STREAMING GUIDE (all times ET) |
| Baseball |
| Friday / 6:30 p.m. / at Ohio State / BTN Plus |
| Saturday / 3 p.m. / at Ohio State / BTN Plus |
| Sunday / 1 p.m. / at Ohio State / BTN Plus |
| Outdoor Track & Field |
| Friday / Noon / Big Ten Championships / BTN Plus |
| Saturday / 10:30 a.m. / Big Ten Championships / BTN Plus |
| Sunday / 11 a.m. / Big Ten Championships / BTN Plus |
By Tom Schott
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Men's and women's outdoor track & field begin competing at the Big Ten Championships on Friday in Bloomington, Indiana. The event runs through Sunday.
The women's team is the defending conference champion and is ranked No. 11 in the country, The men's squad is ranked No. 30 nationally.
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Purdue leads the Governor's Cup competition with Indiana by a 9.5-8.5 margin with the final two points to be awarded at the track & field championships.
Baseball Rolls to Ohio State
Baseball (29-16, 13-4 B1G) takes the nation's longest winning streak - 13 games - to Ohio State (31-16, 11-7) for a crucial three-game series Friday through Sunday. The Boilermakers, who concluded a nine-game homestand with a football-like 27-3 win over Fort Wayne on May 8, are in third place in the Big Ten standings, merely one game behind co-leaders Michigan and Minnesota. Ohio State is tied for four fourth place.
The Boilermakers' 27 runs against Fort Wayne were tied for the fourth-most in school history.
During its perfect nine-game homestand, which included Big Ten series sweeps of Rutgers and Northwestern, Purdue outscored its opponents 80-25 while batting at a .332 clip and posting a 2.22 ERA.
In its most-recent win, 10-8 at Ball State on May 9, the Boilermakers rallied with five runs in the top of the ninth inning. Senior shortstop Harry Shipley tied the game with a three-run inside-the-park home run before freshman leftfield Ben Nisle delivered the go-ahead two-run single with two outs. Then, senior ace relief pitcher Ross Learnard struck out the side in the bottom of the inning to extend his consecutive scoreless innings streak to 24.1.
Purdue wraps up the regular season with a three-game series against Michigan from May 17 to 19 at Alexander Field. The Friday and Saturday contests will be televised by BTN.
Bates Makes History
Softball redshirt freshman pitcher Sydney Bates made history May 4 to 6 at Iowa.
The transfer from Florida State authored three complete-game victories, including two shutouts, as the Boilermakers swept the Hawkeyes 3-1, 9-0 and 6-0. In 19 innings, Bates allowed merely one earned run for a miniscule 0.37 ERA and recorded 11 strikeouts.
Bates became the first Boilermaker to earn the victory in all three games of a Big Ten series and the first to spin back-to-back shutouts on consecutive days against a conference opponent. She is one of merely three pitchers in school history to win three straight Big Ten games, joining
Appropriately, Bates earned Big Ten Pitcher of the Week and Freshman of the Week honors, becoming the first Purdue player to win both awards since Lexi Moore in 2012.
By virtue of its three wins to end the regular season, Purdue earned the No. 10 seed in the Big Ten Tournament.
On May 9, junior third baseman Jenny Behan was named first team All-Big Ten. She topped the Boilermakers with a .309 batting average, 10 doubles, two triples, seven home runs, 30 RBI and a .429 on-base percentage in her first season after transferring from James Madison University.
Etcetera
No. 7 seed men's golf begins play in the NCAA Kissimmee (Florida) Regional on May 14. The top five teams (among 14) advance to the NCAA Championships, along with the low individual finisher at each of the six regionals (not on an advancing team) ... Women's basketball will take on St. John's, Mississippi and UConn in the Paradise Jam from Nov. 22 to 24 in the U.S. Virgin Islands ... Recent Purdue Athletics hires include Eron Hodges as director of player personnel for football and Michael Jasinski as director of football recruiting ... Congratulations to the marketing & promotions staff of Chris Peludat, Michaela Patt, Haley Pfeil and Bailey Schlotfeld on being a finalist for Marketing Team of the Year by NACMA ... Former Purdue volleyball player Annie Drews (2012-15) is a member of the U.S. Women's National Team, which is ranked second in the world and opens the inaugural FIVB Volleyball Nations League from May 15 to 17 in Lincoln, Nebraska ... Guests on this week's Purdue Athletics Podcast are Hall of Fame Class of 2018 inductee Jermaine Allensworth and track & field senior Savannah Roberson.