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That is the mission today. Purdue beat North Carolina A&T yesterday 14-4 to get its second NCAA Tournament win ever and move on to Sunday in the Chapel Hill Reigonal. Now we get Houston again in order to stay alive.
The season is over today unless Purdue can win two games in one day. First, we must gain vengeance against Hosuton for Friday’s 9-1 loss. Then we must face host North Carolina and beat them on their home field in order to force a winner-take-all game with the Tar Heels on Monday.
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Purdue will throw Andrew Bohm (2-0, 4.91 ERA) in the first game today against Houston. Bohm has only made 4 starts this year, butbhis best outing was in the midweek win iver Oral Roberts. The good news is that Houston is out of American Athletic Conference Pitchers of the Year since Aaron Fletcher threw a complete game against us on Friday and Trey Cumbie lasted 7 innings against North Carolina. The bad news is that their bullpen is fully rested. We will likely see Ryan Randel (5-4, 4.54 ERA), but their bullpen has pitched just two innings so far, while ours has thrown 11.
Should Purdue win we will likely go with Ryan Beard (5-3, 4.26 ERA) against North Carolina at 6pm while the Tar Heels will throw Austin Bergner (6-2, 4.26 ERA) or Tyler Baum (4-1, 4.55 ERA). Baum was 7-0 last year as a freshman, making him an impressive 11-1 in his North Carolina career. Getting past North Carolina today would be impressive, and if it happens I am not sure who pitches tomorrow. Trent Johnson has been Purdue's No. 3 much of the year and threw an inning yesterday. He even officially earned the win. Most likely, it would be all arms on deck while the Tar Heels would definitely have a No. 4 guy ready to go.
This is clearly uncharted territory for Purdue. A second NCAA win in a single season is something the program has never done before, and winning two on Sunday is a tall task. Still, we are alive in this thing. We might as well keep playing until they say we are done. Let’s at least beat Houston and get down to the last two in this regional. That would be an unprecedented step forward.