Scouting the Field: Purdue

Photo courtesy the-ozone.net


It came down to the final the day of the regular season, but the Purdue Boilermakers were able to lock up the Big Ten's 6th and final Big Ten Tournament seed. The tournament appearance is the Boilers' 13th in program history, and 6th in the last 7 seasons. As a program Purdue has an 11-24 record in Big Ten Tourney play, with a high finish of 2nd place, two times occurring in 1987 and 2008, both times falling to host Michigan in the championship games. Head Coach Dan Schreiber's Boilers look to take it one step further than last years BTT runners-up.

The 2009 edition of the Boilermakers come into postseason play with a 11-12 Big Ten record, and an even 24-24 overall record. Purdue against the Big Ten Tournament field this season went 6-9. Purdue was swept by the tourney's top two seeds, Ohio State and Minnesota respectively in back-to-back Big Ten weekends in late April. But rebounded in a strong way over the last month, collecting 2-1 series wins over Indiana, Michigan State, and Illinois in order. Needless to say Purdue comes into the tournament pretty hot and should be a 6-seed to not take lightly.

As a team, in 48 games, Purdue batted .318, 4th best in the Big Ten scoring 350 runs, 6th best, also finishing in the half of the Big Ten in hits 555 (5th), doubles 102 (4th), triples 14 (4th) and free passes 227 (2nd). Purdue's 38 home runs was 7th best in the Big Ten, as was their 61 stolen bases in 83 attempts. Purdue's .457 slugging percentage was 5th in the 10 team conference, while their .406 on-base percentage paced the Big Ten.

Offensively Purdue is lead by the Big Ten's batting champion, outfielder Brandon Haveman, who on the strength of 70 hits, posted a robust batting average of .412 on the year. Haveman collected 23 RBI, and lead the team with 16 doubles.

Purdue's power threat resides in their stout third baseman Dan Black. Though he was walked a Big Ten high 59 times, and was hit by 13 other pitches, Black still managed to hit 14 home runs, and 13 doubles in his .303 batting average to lead Purdue with a .648 slugging percentage.

Eric Charles at .390, Alex Jaffee's .343, and Nick Overmyer's .317 batting average, gave Purdue 5 players with a .300 or batter batting average in qualified at-bats needed. Ben Wolgamont lead the team with 9 successful stolen bases in 11 tries. Charles had 7 swipes while Haveman had 6.

Purdue's hitting ability and offensive prowess was the force behind the Boilers reaching the Big Ten's postseason. As their pitching unfortunately wasn't able to consistently produce at a high level, accustomed to their hitting.

Purdue enters the tournament with a 5.75 ERA, seventh best during regular season play, and the highest of the six tournament teams. Purdue's ten saves are tied for fifth best. Purdue did allow the second-fewest hits with 525 on the year, but of those 525, 27 were for home runs, and 93 for doubles, both again fifth-most in the conference. The .305 opponents batting average against was third worst, but Purdue limited the damage that could be done, hitting a Big Ten low 27 batters, and the 188 base on balls issued were 4th lowest. Purdue pitchers struck out 331 hitters, which ranked sixth. Some of Purdue's pitching numbers are a bit skewed relative to others as in playing only 48 games, Purdue pitches pitched a total of 421 innings which tied Northwestern for the fewest.

The Purdue leaders from the mound include Friday night starter and team ace Matt Bischoff. Bischoff who was a 1st team All-Big Ten selection in 2008, went 4-4 on the year with a 5.38 ERA. In 87 innings Bischoff allowed 99 hits, and 52 earned runs. Struck out 77 batters while walking 20. Opponents batted .283 of the junior righty Bischoff did encounter problems in the form of extra-base hits, allowing 26 doubles, 2 triples and 6 home runs. The rest of the Purdue rotation is rounded out by Soph. Matt Morgan 6-4, 4.32 and Jr. southpaw Matt Jensen 4-6, 6.52. Junion Kevin Cahill has been Purdue's most decorated closer, collecting five of the team's ten saves, posting a 6.46 ERA, and 3-2 record in the process.

Defensively Purdue committed the third-most errors in the Big Ten this season with 82, resulting in the second lowest fielding percentage at .956. The Boilermakers turned 41 double players always ranking next to last, as was their 73.9% successful stolen bases against. Purdue catchers threw out 23 runners on the bases while allowed 65 stolen bases.

Purdue begins their quest to receive the Big Ten's automatic NCAA bid, and the program's first Big Ten Tournament championship, Wednesday in game two versus in-state rival Indiana. First pitch will be 30 minutes after the conclusion of game 1. Tenative game time is 7:05. Purdue is expected to send Bischoff to the mound. Indiana will counter with Eric Arnett.