The Nasdaq stock index suffered its second-largest point drop ever Tuesday. Two and a half hours after the closing bell sounded on Wall Street, the Northwestern baseball team quietly left the field after a 5-0 loss to Wisconsin-Parkside.

All in all, it was not the best of days for Pat Thompson. But he isn’t worried.

The senior first baseman collected two of the Wildcats’ five hits in the game. And as for the market, Thompson says his long-term stock portfolio is still going strong.

More likely than not, Thompson is tuned in to CNBC keeping an eye on his investments when he’s not taking practice cuts in the batting cage. If he continues his torrid hitting today against Minnesota, coach Paul Stevens says Thompson might outperform his blue-chip portfolio.

“He’s probably one of the smartest guys in the program as far as reading the market and giving us tips on where to go,” Stevens says. “Lately he’s been tremendous at finding his way around the field and finding some open spots to drive the baseball. If that Pat Thompson comes to play, there are going to be a lot of people in trouble.”

In Thompson, the Cats have found not only a veteran leader at the plate, but also a seasoned investor who can offer sound financial advice. An internship at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter during the summer of his freshman year piqued Thompson’s interest in playing the market.

Since then, Thompson has bought and managed his own stock portfolio, calling in trades to a broker at Dean Witter when he wants to make a move.

Thompson, an economics major, has accepted a job offer from Northern Trust Corp., where he will start working in July. He wants to be a portfolio manager one day, and he is already building a steady clientele.

Perhaps his biggest client is teammate and younger brother Matt, a sophomore first baseman for NU.

“He’s my guy,” Matt says. “I give him all my money and he picks out the stocks that he thinks are good. I really don’t even follow it that much, but I invest all my money with him.”

So is the investment in safe hands?

“Yeah,” Matt says, “and I know where to look if it goes bad.”

Thompson also manages stocks for his parents and has been approached for advice from family friends and about half of the baseball team — including Stevens.

“I never knew that he invested for the last three years,” says Thompson of his coach. “Hearing him have some stock tips for me, I was like, ‘What? I didn’t even know you knew about the stock market.’ It was pretty interesting talking to him about investing.”

Says Stevens of the stock talk: “I was trying to get him to think about me a little bit outside of the cages. Shoot, the 15 or 20 dollars that I have to invest doesn’t go very far.”

For Stevens, Thompson has paid dividends on the field, especially as of late: Thompson is batting .417 in NU’s last three games.

Stevens says Thompson brings the portfolio of a successful hitter to the plate: intelligence, character, consistency and excellent hand-eye coordination.

Teammate and fellow senior Kris Musselman says Thompson has been “solid all four years with the stick.”

“You can count on him for clutch hits,” Musselman said. “Two games ago (against Wisconsin-Milwaukee), we’re down by a run and he hits a double to tie the game up and puts two runners in scoring position. (Wednesday against Wisconsin-Parkside) we were struggling at the plate, but he still had two hits.”

And as an investor?

“I understand he’s pretty good at that,” Musselman says. “He’s got a good portfolio.”

While Thompson may be picky at the plate, he says he is an aggressive investor.

On the field he leads by example — never loud or outspoken. On the market, however, Thompson invests mostly in technology stocks and “high-growth areas.”

The technology sector took a hit Wednesday when the Nasdaq dropped by 286 points — Thompson discusses it as readily as he does his role on the team.

But one day of market movement matters little to Thompson, who says he puts his money away for the long term and watches it grow.

“I’m not looking to spend it anytime soon,” he says.

Stevens says Thompson’s offense could net big profits for the team, starting with today’s 3 p.m. contest against the Golden Gophers.

“He’s hit .350 for us every year,” Stevens says. “Right now, if he gets hot, look out, because he can carry us a long way.”

While Wall Street and baseball seem worlds apart, Thompson says he puts just as much effort into researching a stock and making sure that it is a good buy as he does preparing for games in practice.

“Performance would be the outcome of what you put into either baseball or investing,” Thompson says.