March Madness And Nebraska Baseball Open Thread

Nebraska opens up conference play as they continue their five game road trip with a three game series against the Purdue Boilermakers. Nebraska and Purdue played last season with Purdue taking two out of three in Lincoln, while Nebraska swept Purdue last time they played in West Lafayette.

Purdue does have two dangerous bats in their lineup as Kyle Wood and Kyle Johnson have combined to hit 13 home runs on the season. Wood is the only Purdue batter hitting over .300 as his average checks in at .347. Purdue as a team only hits .248.

Boilermaker pitching is not pretty, as the pitchers have issued 77 walks against 88 strikeouts. Senior Mike Lutz will get the start tonight. He has a 2.70 ERA in six appearances, but has struck out just six over 16.2 innings of work. In back of Lutz, the Purdue bullpen is very shaky.

Derek Burkamper gets another start for the Huskers. Burkamper was rolling along last weekend when he lost control. Burkamper will look to rack up the strikeouts while keeping walks to a minimum tonight.

In other sporting action, the NCAA Basketball Tournament continues tonight. Two Big Ten teams are in action as Wisconsin takes on Notre Dame, and Indiana gets obliterated by North Carolina.Seriously are we rooting for Wisconsin so we can say we beat the National Champions?

For anyone who cares about hockey, Michigan is playing Notre Dame in the NCAA Hockey Tournament as well. Michigan actually is pretty good. Maybe we should get a hockey team. Nebraska Omaha did not make the tournament this year.