April 16, 2012

Probable Starting Pitchers
Robert Ramer (Jr, RHP) vs. TBA for UIC

Tuesday Evening Weather Forecast for Chicago
53 degrees, clear skies

Series History
All-Time Series: Purdue leads 8-5
Purdue Under Doug Schreiber vs. UIC: Purdue leads 3-2 (Since 1999)
2011 in Chicago: Purdue 17, UIC 3 (April 20)
2011 in West Lafayette: Purdue 12, UIC 1 (May 17)

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- No. 16 Purdue baseball returns to the Chicagoland area and resumes midweek play Tuesday, traveling to the Windy City for the first of two dates against Illinois-Chicago this season.

First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m. ET at Les Miller Field, which features an artificial turf playing surface and a great view of the Chicago skyline.

The Boilermakers (28-5) have won eight straight games overall, their second-longest win streak of the year. Purdue posted a 10-game run from Feb. 26 through March 16. Dating back to March 2011, the Boilers have won 12 straight true midweek games. That streak includes a home-and-home sweep of UIC (14-19) last season.

After recording Big Ten series sweeps of Northwestern and Illinois during the current eight-game win streak, Purdue is now 6-0 against teams from the Land of Lincoln this season. The Boilermakers take on Illinois State in Normal, Ill., next Tuesday. The Redbirds were the last opponent to defeat Purdue in a true midweek game.

The Boilermakers thumped UIC twice last season, outscoring the Flames 29-4 in the home-and-home sweep. Illinois-Chicago was table to post an above .500 overall record (28-26) last year despite being outscored, 298-286. But exclude the two games against Purdue and UIC outscored its opponents, 282-269.

Robert Ramer is schedule to make his fourth midweek start of the season and fifth overall Tuesday. He issued his first walk of the year in the third inning of last week's win at Ball State, snapping his streak of 25 consecutive innings pitched without a walk dating back to May of 2011. But he gave way to the bullpen with the Boilers in front and Purdue finished off the win, improving to 12-1 in Ramer's 13 career starts.

Individually, Ramer upped his career record to 10-0, officially qualifying for the top spot among the program's all-time leaderboard for winning percentage by a pitcher (minimum 10 decisions). Seven of the 10 victories have come in midweek action. In his 37 innings pitched over nine midweek starts the last three seasons, Ramer has limited the opposition to just 27 hits while issuing just three walks and compiling a 3.00 ERA.

Starting pitching has led the way during the current eight-game win streak. Purdue has surrendered no more than four runs in any of the last eight games, compiling a 1.12 team ERA and outscoring the opposition, 51-12.

In the national rankings this week, the Boilers moved up two spots to 16th in the Baseball America Top 25 and one spot to 17th in both the USA Today/ESPN coaches' and NCBWA writers' polls. Purdue held its ground in the Perfect Game USA (15th) and Collegiate Baseball (22nd) rankings.

Illinois-Chicago is coming of a series win against Butler in Indianapolis this past weekend. Among common opponents, the Flames have a home win against Notre Dame and a series victory against Northwestern. UIC is 7-5 at home this year but went 1-4 during its last five-game homestand.

The Boilermakers make their first-ever trip to Nebraska this weekend for a key Big Ten series against the third-place Huskers. Purdue will enter the series having swept back-to-back conference series for the first time since 2001 (at Michigan State and at Northwestern).

Purdue and Illinois-Chicago are scheduled to play again May 9 in West Lafayette. That will be the opener of a five-game homestand at Lambert Field. Those will be the final games played at the old ballpark.