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GOLDANDBLACK EXPRESS • VOLUME 25, EXPRESS 21 • 27 some fresh arms in the bullpen. Kyle Wood stepped up and did a fantastic job and Joe Eichmann did a great job closing it out for us. We'll have a little more depth in the bull- pen and our starters won't need to get us into the seventh inning every game." Schreiber said he expects Frawley to start Sunday against Missouri. Ghaselli, Haan and Downs are likely to start Purdue's other three games against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Sam Houston State. Mike Kornacker — Purdue's top fresh- man pitcher according to Schreiber — is ex- pected to log significant innings as well. The 6-foot-3, 215-pounder battled an offseason injury but is back and healthy. "We haven't been able to get his pitch count up as high as we would have liked and that's one reason why we didn't take him this weekend," Schreiber said. "He'll probably get some quality innings whether we decide to start him or first man out of the bullpen." Purdue's pitchers could benefit tre- mendously from better play behind it. The Boilermakers committed nine errors over the weekend, a bit of a surprise consider- ing the defense was expected to be a strength of the team. In each of the three contests, Western Carolina scored two or more runs in an inning where Purdue committed an error. Purdue trailed 6-4 in the fifth inning of the season opener before Western Carolina exploded for six runs in the bottom of the fifth, in large part due to two Boilermaker miscues. "That was very uncharacteris- tic of us just based off everything we did in the fall and winter," right fielder Jeff Evak said. "That's definite- ly something that we look at that is not like us and something we can improve on. Our defense can defi- nitely help us win some ballgames." Purdue's offense showed signs that it will be more potent than the group that scored a Big Ten-worst 3.38 runs per game last season, totaling 19 runs and 33 hits on the weekend with production from the top of the lineup to the bottom. "I think we're all adapting to our roles a little bit better and starting to realize our strengths and our weaknesses," Evak said. "Some of the guys who played a lot as fresh- men and sophomores are now juniors so they've matured. I can speak for me person- ally and some of the other sophomores now that we're starting to understand where we fit with this program." Penn transfer Michael Vilardo provided pop at the top of the order, going 5-for-14 with three runs and four RBI. Third-year starters Brandon Krieg and Kyle Johnson hit .455 and .357, respectively, in the 2 and 3 holes. Purdue may have found its cleanup hit- ter in JUCO transfer Justin Gubeser, who hit .500 and had Purdue's lone home run of the weekend. Evak gave the bottom third of the or- der — a group that struggled mightily last season — a lift with three doubles and a team-high four runs. Freshman Harry Shi- pley added three hits in 10 at-bats from the nine-hole. "I was really happy with the bottom of the order," Schreiber said. "Evak and Shipley did a great job getting on base and knock- ing in some runs. Definitely a bonus. When we put it all together, I think offensively we'll be much better than we have been in the last couple years. "Overall, we had some impressive at- bats and some guys had some really good weekends." The one drawback with Purdue's offense was its 34 strikeouts in three games, includ- ing seven from Johnson. "That's something that we're going to have to be better at," Schreiber said. "There was only one inning where we scored more than two runs. In order to create big innings, you're going to have to eliminate some of the strikeouts." j Links PurdueSports.com: DePaul deals Boilermakers 5-2 loss in men's tennis PurdueSports.com: Softball caps perfect weekend with 8-0 win over FIU PurdueSports.com: Cox has career days as Boilermakers wrap up Fred Wilt Invite PurdueSports.com: Enekwechi narrowly misses NCAA D-I weight throw record at Fred Wilt Invite PurdueSports.com: No. 24 Purdue wrestling handles Michigan State 22-13 PurdueSports.com: Boilers win five events at Ohio State Winter Invite BETTER START OFFENSIVELY While its pitching staff struggled, Purdue's offense fared much better over the weekend than it did in its opening series against Tennessee. 2014 Season 2015 .172 Batting Average .314 15 Hits 33 4 Extra-base hits 12 4 Runs 19 Purdue Kyle Johnson tied for a team-high with five hits over the weekend, including two with three RBI in the series finale.