Northwestern starting pitcher Zach Schara hopes that change will do him — and his team — some good.
The sophomore, who usually starts the Wildcats’ weekend opener on Fridays, will start today’s game against Valparaiso (4-23-1) and will then start Sunday against Michigan State.
“All I want to do is have a part in the team’s success,” Schara said. “It doesn’t matter where I’m put in, whether it’s first pitcher on Friday or last pitcher or Sunday, I could care less. The point is that I’m getting in there, getting innings pitched and trying to help the ball club win games.”
Schara has been on the losing end of a number of pitching duels in facing opponents’ No. 1 starters on Fridays.
Schara leads NU (18-17) with 63 strikeouts and is second with a 2.65 ERA, but his record is only 3-4. He said he hopes the change will help his and the team’s fortunes.
“On Fridays we’ve been pretty unlucky thus far,” Schara said. “Hopefully this will mix things up and we can get that opening win and roll the rest of the weekend.”
Schara expects to throw about five innings today and said fatigue will not be a concern despite the extra start. Fellow sophomore Gabe Ribas will start Friday’s game.
Ribas is second on the team with 49 strikeouts, and first with six wins and a 2.08 ERA. Still, the offense will have to produce if the Cats are to start winning on Fridays.
NU’s offense showed up in style this past weekend against Minnesota. The Cats scored four, eight and five runs in the series’ last three games. And junior shortstop Jeremy Kurella said a change in the team’s practices may have made the difference.
“We got the bats going really nicely these last few games,” Kurella said. “We started breaking out the wood bats again in (batting practice). I don’t know if that had anything to do with it, but it’s always more fun to swing the wood.”
Kurella has been swinging the bat as well as anyone in a Cats uniform this season. He is third on the team in hitting, batting .356, and leads the team with 10 doubles.
Even more valuable than what he does at the plate is what he does once on base. Kurella has attempted 28 steals and has been successful 22 times.
Kurella and the offense will have to keep up the weekend’s production to win this road game, but Schara isn’t worried about the bats. Schara will focus on his pitching and let the hits come when they do.
“(Run support) is something that you can’t predict because baseball’s such an unpredictable game, but I have confidence in our guys,” Schara said. “(Assistant) coach Joe Keenan says, ‘Hitting is like a disease, so let’s catch it.’ We’ve caught it a little but hopefully we can really catch it even more.”
Schara has a history against this midweek opponent. Just more than a year ago he entered the Valparaiso game in relief in the ninth inning and gave up one hit, two walks and one run to take the loss.
Still, he isn’t overly concerned with past results.
“I don’t know too much about them and in general I don’t know too much about my opponents,” Schara said. “Every game I’m just trying to do the same thing, and that’s throw strikes.”
Kurella said the Cats will try to use the Valparaiso game as a chance to build some momentum before facing Michigan State, the last-place team in the Big Ten, this weekend. He said positive results against Minnesota have given the team much confidence.
“We know we can play with anybody and I think we proved that (Saturday), so hopefully we can keep the ball rolling,” he said. “We’re confident we can win every time we take the field.”
