It's water cooler weekend at Bart Kaufman Field.
That's the way IU Coach Chris Lemonis refers to his team's three-game series against the Purdue Boilermakers.
Some coaches may try to downplay the energy and tension of a rivalry series, but Lemonis has told his team to embrace the passion of the matchup ahead of the weekend series.
"It's a big deal to Indiana fans and Purdue fans," Lemonis said. "We don't try to act like it's just a normal game. The intensity is a little higher. It's still baseball — you still have to go out and execute and play the game — but it means a little bit more when it's Purdue."
This year's meeting between the in-state rivals comes after the two teams traded series victories in 2016 and 2017.
Each team's series wins came at their own ballpark, with IU sweeping Purdue in Bloomington in 2016 while Purdue won two of three games last season at Alexander Field in West Lafayette.
For players like junior catcher Ryan Fineman, the weekend will be an opportunity to return to winning ways against the Boilermakers.
"It's really exciting," Fineman said. "Freshman year, we swept them, and we went to their place last year and they beat us pretty good. So this year it means a lot to us to kind of take it to them."
IU (20-5, 1-1) will have its full pitching staff available for the series after Tuesday afternoon's game at Ball State was cancelled due to rain. Lemonis said junior Jonathan Stiever, junior Pauly Milto and sophomore Cameron Beauchamp will be IU's three starters.
Milto and Stiever both pitched in last year's series against the Boilermakers. Stiever allowed two runs in seven innings in a 6-5 loss, while Milto allowed 5 runs in 7.1 innings during a 14-9 win.
Similar arms will also be on display from the Boilermakers. Senior Tanner Andrews and junior Gareth Stroh, who both pitched in last year's series, have each started seven games for the Boilermakers this season.
However, Lemonis said while both teams have veteran pitchers that the opposition has seen before, it's still a new year for each team.
"Last year was two totally different teams," Lemonis said. "We're playing good baseball. They're playing good baseball, it's just a new year."
Purdue (14-10, 3-0) has continued its streaky run of play this season leading into this weekend's series.
The Boilermakers won eight of their first nine games before losing nine of their next 10 games. Since that slide, Purdue has won five straight games including a sweep last weekend at Penn State to start conference play.
Purdue is tied with Michigan at the top of the Big Ten as the conference's only undefeated teams, while IU has played the fewest number of conference games.
But with six of IU's next seven games as part of conference play, and all seven of those games coming at Bart Kaufman Field, it offers the Hoosiers a prime opportunity to continue their recent consistent play.
"Obviously get some wins, but just play good baseball," Fineman said. "Pitching, hitting, defense, everything we can do to just keep getting better every day, so when it comes to the end of the season, we know we've done everything to be the best team."
