After spending most of Tuesday afternoon huddled next to a small dugout space heater trying to comprehend a sloppy loss to a Division II opponent, coach Paul Stevens and his Northwestern baseball team headed south on I-57 Thursday night for warmer temperatures and today’s Big Ten opener at Illinois.
The Wildcats (10-13) might be catching their intrastate rival at just the right time. Ranked in the preseason Top 25, the Fighting Illini (10-11-1, 1-2 Big Ten) have limped through the first part of the season – including a grueling schedule this week with six games in the seven days leading up to the weekend’s four-game series.
After dropping two of three to Michigan State in their Big Ten opening series last weekend at Illinois Field, the Illini tied Southern Illinois, 6-6, Wednesday night in a game called because of darkness.
But the Cats have troubles of their own. Stevens kept NU out in the cold for two-hour practices the past two days, hoping to reacclimate his Cats to Midwestern weather after a week in sunny Florida. Game-time temperatures this weekend are expected to be in the mid-50s, a bit more moderate than Tuesday’s blustery 30 degrees – a major contributor to the team’s most recent offensive and defensive woes.
“It’s a little bit of a shock when you first go out, but that’s one of the big reasons we played (Tuesday),” Stevens said.
The small heater placed at the end of the dugout didn’t help much Tuesday – the Cats fell to Wisconsin-Parkside, 5-3.
“I asked Facilities Management if that was the largest thing they had that could blow hot air,” Stevens said.
After mustering only six hits Tuesday – even with the bats keeping warm by the space heater – the offense isn’t quite where Stevens said he thought it would be.
“If you look at the warranty on those bats, it’s null and void if it’s under 65 degrees,” Stevens said. “I saw us hit a lot of balls very hard toward the end of Spring Training, and I think we have some hitters that are on the verge of exploding.”
The best news for NU, however, might be that Illinois ace and Big Ten Player of the Week Andy Dickinson had to pitch the final two innings of the Illini’s 2-1 win over Indiana University-Purdue Univeristy at Fort Wayne Tuesday. Dickinson was expected to start Friday, but might be held to a relief role for the first part of the series.
Stevens said the Cats will again look to their strong pitching staff to carry them through the weekend. He said either senior righthander Mike Nall or junior righty Zach Schara could start today’s game, with the other starting one of Saturday’s doubleheader games. Both have ERAs well below three and are among the conference leaders in strikeouts.
The Cats have plenty of problems to sort out, however, with most of the infield out of position and the outfield having trouble even with routine fly balls. NU led the Big Ten in errors and tied its season high with four errors against Wisconsin-Parkside.
Even though Stevens moved sophomore Ken Padgett from his native catcher to shortstop and had just one natural infielder, Wes Robinson, in Tuesday’s lineup, he said talking in terms of improvement is no longer sufficient.
“You’re never extremely comfortable, and there’s always that factor of being on the edge of your seat,” Stevens said of his infield. “But right now I’m very comfortable with the people, and there’s a lot of young guys who are going to go through some growing pains. … We have to nurture that.”
Offensively, things aren’t much better for the Cats. NU is third to last in the conference in team hitting, and doesn’t have hitters among the conference leaders in any offensive category. Catcher Joe Hietpas said the weekend’s games give the Cats an opportunity for a fresh, hot start.
“I’ve been here and seen everything in terms of preseason,” Hieptas said. “This year we’re not playing that well, but we have the chance to turn it around.”
