Wrapping up on the road

Purdue will pay Maryland a visit this weekend for what will be both teams’ penultimate conference series.

Neither team is looking at capturing an outright Big Ten Title this season. The Boilermakers (23-22, 9-8 Big Ten) and Terrapins (19-27, 4-13) claim No. 7 and 13 in the standings, respectively, but that’s not to say the Boilers can’t finish strong and secure one of the 32 at-large bids for the NCAA Tournament in May.

The Boilers are coming off a hard-fought two-loss weekend which saw the top dogs of the conference in Northwestern pick up just its second conference loss all season. The two teams had split the series ahead of Sunday, and although Purdue held a 3-1 lead headed into the sixth frame that game, the Boilers ultimately lost in extra innings.

Head coach Magali Frezzotti was pleased with the team’s overall showing last weekend. With the exception of Friday, which she thought was a passive showing and not their best performance, the series was tight and featured great performances on both sides of the field from both teams.

“For us to have this postseason-caliber performance in our first year with this program,” she said, “we’re happy that at least we can hang in and put ourselves in a position to win the series, not just one game.”

Purdue won’t be the only team with a first-year coach this weekend, as Maryland’s Lauren Karn just took over for the Terps, coming off back-to-back Horizon League Titles and leaving Oakland University as the program's coach with the most wins to-date.

Frezzotti said although they can go off past encounters with Maryland to gauge what they might be up against, there’s still a bit of an “unknown” factor to the Terrapins in terms of their play style and team dynamic.

The Terps’ most notable defensive asset is right in the middle of the infield, some 43 feet in front of home plate. Courtney Wyche, a graduate student pitcher, has more than 600 strikeouts recorded in her career and was named the National Pitcher of the Week earlier in April.

Wyche, who’s pitched 140.1 innings this season, boasts a .170 batting average against and leads the Big Ten in strikeouts with 185. Her 2.99 ERA is slightly better than Purdue’s lowest, belonging to junior Kendall Klochack coming in at 3.28. Klochack pitched in the last game of the Northwestern series, despite one run in the first, she held the Wildcats scoreless until the sixth when she let up a pair.

Wyche started one game against the Boilers in 2021 and another in 2022, pitching complete games and picking up the win both times. No other Terps pitcher is older than a sophomore and therefore wouldn’t have thrown against a Boilermaker as the two teams didn’t play last year.

Outside of being a hard thrower, Frezzotti said, Wyche was “familiar with the Big Ten” and its style of play. She said the weekend trip out East will be fun, due in part to the indeterminate nature of Maryland’s playing style.

The series gets underway Friday at 6 p.m., followed by a 2 p.m. game Saturday before wrapping Sunday at noon. All games will be broadcast on Big Ten Plus.