March 5, 2012 

Boilers Roll like the Tide through Auburn

The Boilermaker Dream Team was back in action this past weekend in Auburn, Alabama, alongside the Auburn Tigers, Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles and Charleston Southern Buccaneers. Our earlier constructive criticisms of ridiculous travel routes seemed to have inspired AirTran to engineer a direct flight from Indianapolis to Atlanta (a mere two-hour drive from our destination). Eureka! In a strange turn of events, West Lafayette was experiencing the thunderstorms that had plagued our first two weekends and the rest of the Midwest/South this weekend, leaving a weekend forecast of partly-cloudy with the opportunity for an 8-1 start to 2012.

Friday night saw a strong turnout for the “War Eagle” faithful to greet the Dream Team into SEC country. It would be the bats of the Big Ten that would prevail as we picked up our sixth win of the year with a score of 9-8 against the Tigers. Rumors buzzed about Cam Newton throwing out the first pitch but it was later found out that Cecil Newton requested another $180k from Auburn for his son’s return to campus, NCAA investigation still pending.

Saturday’s game saw us face one of the best from Conference USA in Southern Mississippi, the alma mater of ESPN favorite Brett Favre. Before Los Boilers could realize the Eagles weren’t sporting Wrangler jeans, they trailed 9-3 with two outs in the seventh inning. Then in an effort to stop the bleeding, Coach Schreiber made the move to the bullpen in Jack Deano after Roger and J.P. witnessed an angel rubbing his right arm that had been in hibernation for the past three years. After three consecutive hits, the bullpen gate opened, and with it, the flood gates. A mere four batters later, the Boilers trailed by two with the go-ahead-run at the dish in the form of Barrett “El Conquistador” Serrato. Serrato launched a ball over Frank Thomas’ face in right center, giving us an improbable 10-9 lead that would hold off for the remainder of the game. The odds of scoring seven runs with two outs and nobody on are similar to West Lafayette hosting the 2024 Olympics.

Purdue was able to finish the weekend with a 3-0 mark after battling to a 5-2 victory over the feisty Buccaneers of Charleston Southern.

For those that have read the first two journal entries. you may notice that of the variety of activities we partake in over a weekend. Baseball and food consume the majority of our time. This weekend would be no different, albeit in a more positive light for two reasons. One, Honey Baked Ham was sent down on a Triple-A assignment being replaced by Zaxby’s. Two, a celebratory dinner was had at “Country BBQ” for our sixth and seventh wins. As far as us northerners are concerned, “Country BBQ” has to be the birthplace of southern hospitality. A buffet of pulled pork/BBQ chicken/coleslaw/potato salad and banana pudding greeted us along with a warm welcome from the band that was performing a medley of bluegrass. If you didn’t feel like you were at home here, you wouldn’t feel at home in your own bed. Clearly, the Boilermaker Express runs more efficiently when properly fed with a variety of food.

As another successful weekend comes to a close, the student-athletes face one more week of class before departing on a trip for PCB SB ’12!! Or so they thought, as instead they will be journeying across the Midwest where they can only hope Carson Daly and the ‘Total Request Live’ crew will show up either in Murray, Ky. or Wichita, Kan. “Hey, it could happen” - J.P.

Thanks for reading,

Cal Gunter and David Miller

(photos courtesy of Purdue Media Relations Office)