Gabe Ribas won four times as a freshman pitcher last season, but one stood out in particular: Ribas and the Northwestern baseball team shellacked then-No. 24 Notre Dame 20-10.
“Coach (Paul Stevens) looked me in the eye and said, ‘You can go as long as you want,'” Ribas said of last year’s game. “I got great run support and we won. It was exciting. We felt on top of the world.”
After dropping three of four games at Iowa last weekend, the Wildcats (24-22) are not exactly elated. But a repeat performance against No. 20 Notre Dame (36-11) would get the team back on its feet. NU takes on the Fighting Irish at 6 p.m. today in South Bend, Ind.
Freshman outfielder Eric Roeder said a win would help the team tremendously after a disappointing weekend in Iowa. After winning 8-4 in Game 1 Friday, NU ran into a brick wall. Iowa hurler Chad Blackwell threw a perfect game to open Saturday’s doubleheader, completely shutting down the Cats’ offense.
But Roeder said that loss only made the Cats mad — it was Sunday’s 8-6 loss that truly deflated NU because the team had expected to win three games.
The three losses to the Hawkeyes prevented the Cats from putting distance between themselves and the second tier of Big Ten teams. NU still holds sixth place in the conference — the final qualifying spot for the conference tournament — but Michigan is just two games behind in the standings.
Now the Cats’ tournament chances hinge on their performance over the next two weekends. NU travels to Purdue this weekend for a four-game set with the Boilermakers, the third-best team in the conference. Then the Cats host Penn State the following weekend to close out the season. The Nittany Lions currently own the best record in the Big Ten.
“It comes down to the last two weekends,” Ribas said. “If we can’t beat them, we don’t belong in the postseason.”
Roeder said the Cats challenged themselves to do what it takes to reach the postseason in that locker room meeting.
“We know that they’re both good teams,” Roeder said of Purdue and Penn State, “but we also know that we can beat them.”
For now, the Cats must focus on today’s trip to Notre Dame, a game Ribas said the team gets fired up every year.
Maybe NU doesn’t have to win in a blowout like last season, but Roeder said a good showing against the Fighting Irish would get the team back on track.
“Notre Dame is a game we like to win every year,” Ribas said. “They have enjoyed a little more national success than us. We look forward to putting our nose to the grindstone. Hopefully we’ll put it all together, pitching and hitting.”
That, however, has proved difficult for the Cats to do. Ribas said NU has had trouble playing consistent baseball.
“We’ve shown ourselves to be a very good team at times and we’ve shown ourselves to have a lack of focus at times,” Ribas said. “And that’s (No.) 1 through 25 — from the starting pitchers to the guy keeping the scorebook.”
Roeder said the Cats have struggled to find the right chemistry. A given lineup can explode for runs one game and the same lineup will go silent the next game, he said.
“Coach (Paul Stevens) is just trying to find the lineup that’s working,” Roeder said. “We’re just getting consistent play out of a few guys and that’s not enough.”
