Purdue Baseball: Boilers Land No. 2 Seed In NCAA Regional
WEST LAFAYETTE – The Purdue baseball team earned the No. 2 seed in the Chapel Hill Regional of the NCAA Tournament and will play Houston in the opening round Friday at 7 p.m. ET.
The NCAA announced the 64-team field for the 72nd annual tournament Monday afternoon. Double-elimination play at 16 regional sites nationwide is set for June 1-4 with the winners advancing to Super Regionals slated forJune 8-11 for a best-of-three series. The College World Series begins June 16 in Omaha.
The four-team NCAA Regional at North Carolina’s Boshamer Stadium features Purdue (37-19), Houston (36-23), North Carolina A&T (32-23) and the host Tar Heels (38-18). UNC opted to play N.C. A&T in the afternoon game Friday at 2 p.m. All games of the double-elimination format will be available live on ESPN3, WatchESPN and the ESPN app.
North Carolina is the No. 6 national seed. The Chapel Hill Regional is paired with the DeLand Regional, hosted by a Stetson team that the Boilermakers played back in early March. The DeLand Regional also features South Florida, Oklahoma State and Hartford. Stetson is seeded 11th among the NCAA Regional hosts. The winners of the Chapel Hill and DeLand Regionals will meet in a Super Regional the weekend of June 11 to 13.
Purdue has qualified for an NCAA Regional for just the third time in program history. The 1987 and 2012 teams also played in the NCAA Tournament. The Boilermakers’ 37 wins this season, 21 coming since April 20, are tied for the second most in program history. Purdue finished as runner-up in the Big Ten Tournament, losing 6-4 to Minnesota in the title game on Sunday.
Tanner Andrews, the former three-sport star at Tippecanoe Valley High School, is the ace of the Purdue pitching staff. The 6-3 senior righthander is 7-4 on the season with a 2.71 ERA. Andrews leads the Boilers in wins, innings pitched and strikeouts.
Purdue’s last trip to the state of North Carolina was a season-opening series in 2015 at Western Carolina (Cullowhee). The 2006 Boilermakers played a weekend series at UNC’s Boshamer Stadium, winning the opener of the three-game set in early March.
Purdue has never played Houston or North Carolina A&T before. The Boilermakers are 2-2 against first-time opponents this year — defeating Summit League champion Oral Roberts and Incarnate Word, losing to Southeastern Louisiana and Nicholl State on the spring break trip.
North Carolina (No. 5), Houston (No. 24) and Purdue (No. 27) are all among Collegiate Baseball’s top 30 national rankings this week. The Boilermakers have six wins vs. nationally ranked teams this year. The April 6 victory at No. 10 Indiana was their first vs. a top 10-ranked opponent since beating No. 2/3 North Carolina in Chapel Hill in 2006.
Purdue was one of four Big Ten teams to qualify for NCAA Regionals this year. Minnesota is the No. 14 national seed and hosting a regional in Minneapolis. Indiana is a No. 2 seed in Austin, Texas and Ohio State is a No. 3 seed in Greenville, North Carolina.
Michigan was the No. 2 seed at the 2017 Chapel Hill Regional, which Davidson won as the No. 4 seed.
CHAPEL HILL REGIONAL SCHEDULE
All Times ET // All Games Live on ESPN3/WatchESPN
FRIDAY, JUNE 1
• 2 p.m. — Game 1: No. 4 North Carolina A&T at No. 1 North Carolina A&T
• 7 p.m. — Game 2: No. 3 Houston vs. No. 2 Purdue
SATURDAY, JUNE 2
• 1 p.m. — Game 3: Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2
• 6 p.m. — Game 4: Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2
SUNDAY, JUNE 3
• 1 p.m. — Game 5: Winner Game 3 vs. Loser Game 4
• 6 p.m. — Game 6: Winner Game 4 vs. Winner Game 5
MONDAY, JUNE 4
• 4 p.m. — Game 7: Winner 6 vs. Loser Game 6 (if necessary)