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Johnson and Conner Hudnall, a junior college transfer, along with freshman catchers Josh Estill and Jack Picchiotti, could be regulars in the lineup. On the hill, Purdue welcomes back Brad Schreiber and Kyle Wood as its top two starters after both missed last season with Tommy John elbow surgeries. Fellow starters Robert Ramer, a veteran with 13 career wins, and rookie Jordan Minch will fill out the rotation, although the bullpen is a question mark. ���This is a talented team,��� said 15th-year head coach Doug Schreiber, the reigning Big Ten Coach-of-the-Year. ���The younger kids are talented and I think we���ve got a nucleus of older guys who are back who have the talent. What I���m looking for is to see if they have that edge every day. ���If you���re going to compete for a championship, you���ve got to be consistent every year and an older team brings that consistency. So we���ll find out how mature these guys are, if they���re going to be able to bring it every day.��� Others aren���t optimistic. Baseball America tabs Purdue to finish eighth in the league, two spots out of qualifying for the Big Ten Tournament and well behind projected champion Indiana. But Purdue���s been picked low before, only to sneak its way into the conference���s postseason. The Boilermakers have momentum on their side. Not only are they coming off their second NCAA Tournament appearance, the first since 1987, but they���ll open their new stadium this spring as well. ���Just getting into the stadium in the fall kick-started it off the right way,��� Cianfrocco said of the multi-million-dollar Alexander Field. ���It got people excited about the season and I think it got people really focused. And it helped (us) get some extra work in, just because we had the batting cages and things right there. It���s such a good facility that everyone was kind of out there early and wanted to get a feel for it.��� Purdue will be hard-pressed to match its offensive production of last season. Then, the Boilermakers led the Big Ten in hitting with a team average of .316 and hits and scored nearly six-and-a-half runs per game. But the meat of the lineup is now in the minor leagues with Kevin Plawecki, the conference Player-of-the-Year, and Cameron Perkins, an All-Big Ten pick, selected in the top 10 rounds of June���s draft. Talbott, McHugh and Cianfrocco will be asked to carry more of the load. Formerly the No. 9 hitter, Talbott moves up to leadoff, where Purdue will try to take advantage of his speed; the senior has 37 stolen bases in his career, with an on-base percentage of .387. ���It���s my job to get on base and score runs,��� Talbott said, ���and with my speed I feel like I can do that. I want to get into scoring position for Back On Top Schreiber takes spot as staff ace S tanding on a 10-inch mound in the middle of a baseball diamond, Brad Schreiber strikes an imposing figure. Purdue���s No. 1 starting pitcher, he���s a 6-foot-4, 235-pound, hard-throwing righthander. ���He looks like a linebacker,��� outfielder Tom Campbell Stephen Talbott said. ���And on top of that, he throws up to the low 90s and has good off- Brad Schreiber missed last season with Tommy John elbow speed and throws it all with command. And on surgery, but he���ll lead off Purdue���s rebuilt rotation. top of that, he���s tough and he competes; he���s going to do whatever he can to get you out.��� And on top of that, Schreiber is now healthy. After missing all of last season while rehabbing from Tommy John elbow surgery nearly 18 months ago, the potentially overpowering ace is poised to take the hill again. ���It���s definitely been a long, long time,��� Schreiber said before his first start this season, in which he gave up an earned run in four innings as Purdue beat Connecticut Feb. 15, his first appearance since April 17, 2011. ���But it���s been moving fast (lately). I know (during practices) in the fall, it was kind of like, ���All right, I���ll feel my way through this again, live hitters, get back into the swing of things.��� ��� It���s been long, kind of strenuous with the rehab. But I had a decent time doing it and I���m ready to pitch again.��� And Purdue is ready to have him. The Wisconsin native, who likely would have been the Friday starter a year ago, was showing signs of domination as a sophomore in 2011 before succumbing to injury. As a Sunday (No. 3) starter then, he had a 4-0 record with a 3.80 ERA in eight starts, while leading the Big Ten in batting average against (.209) and strikeouts (50) at the time of the injury. But after leaving his start at Penn State early, Schreiber tried to rest for a few weeks before resuming, hoping the time off would help his fatigued elbow. But the pain was still intense in his next bullpen session, and an MRI revealed damage to a tendon. But Schreiber still tried to give it a go in the final weeks of ���11, when the Boilermakers were making a push toward the postseason. ���It was painful, but with the adrenaline rush of the game, I actually threw a decent bullpen and I told Coach I���d be ready (in the Big Ten Tournament) if he needed an inning or two out of me,��� he said. ���I knew my elbow was messed up and I���d need it fixed anyway, so I just going to try to help with the team if I could. But the timing wasn���t right, so I didn���t get an opportunity.��� Surgery followed, and Schreiber had to watch as his Boilermaker teammates won the Big Ten championship without him in 2012. It was particularly hard, he said, because of the bond formed with classmates like Cameron Perkins and Kevin Plawecki, who were part of a recruiting class three years earlier that Doug Schreiber had called his best at Purdue. ���We all came in together and we all contributed quite a bit as freshmen,��� said Brad Schreiber, who is not related to the head coach. ���We were real close, a tight-knit group, so obviously it was hard. But I was excited for all the guys having a lot of success. And I was still part of the team, I still helped out with giving feedback into the games. It was hard, but I could still contribute.��� Schreiber has used the time rehabbing as effectively as possible. A relatively raw pitcher in his first two seasons at Purdue ��� he offset a low-90s fastball with a curve ��� he���s since developed a two-seam fastball and changeup. That could help him be more effective in his return. In the first few weeks of the season, Schreiber will be on a pitch limit of 80, with hopes to increase that to about 110 by the start of Big Ten play. ���He���s been a high pitch-count guy in the past because he���s a strikeout guy,��� Doug Schreiber said. ���But he���s developed some different pitches and is learning how to pitch a little bit more. And his velocity has been holding steady. He could have a speed bump here or there, but we���ll keep an eye on him.��� Schreiber, whom Baseball America tabs as the 10th-best Major League prospect in the Big Ten, was drafted in the 40th round by the Twins after last season, despite the injury. But he choose to return, and Purdue is happy to have him. ���Whenever you can have someone like him come out and throw six or seven innings, giving up three runs or whatever, it gives you an opportunity to win,��� first baseman Angelo Cianfrocco said. ���And when you have someone like that on Friday night, it calms the nerves a little bit, because you can sit back and if you don���t score the first couple innings, he���s going to keep you in the game and you can ride the wave until you finally break through.��� ��� Kyle Charters 58 ��� Gold & Black IllustrateD ��� volume 23, issue 4 GBIprint.com GoldandBlack.com