A flight from Chicago to Penn State is pretty long.

The bus ride is even longer.

“I wish it was a flight,” Northwestern baseball coach Paul Stevens said. “We’re going to be flying on the toll road.”

Before the Wildcats (20-26) travel to State College, Pa., to begin their final run at a spot in the Big Ten tournament, they take on Wisconsin-Milwaukee (24-13) today at Rocky Miller Park – a midweek game that takes on somewhat less significance with a battle for the postseason looming.

Not that NU, which lost to Division II Wisconsin-Parkside earlier in the season, isn’t taking today’s matchup seriously. Wisconsin-Milwaukee, a Midwestern Collegiate Conference team, has won 10 of its last 12 games.

But after a pair of losses to end a weekend series against Iowa, the Cats find themselves in seventh place in the conference with two four-games series left, taking on both the fourth-place Nittany Lions and third-place Minnesota on the road.

Last season NU found itself in a similar bind. With eight games to play, the Cats needed wins on the road against Purdue and at home against then-second-place Penn State.

And NU prevailed, taking three from Purdue and the first two games from the Nittany Lions to clinch the sixth and final playoff spot.

For the Cats to repeat the feat this season, Stevens said they will need the same strong pitching and timely hitting that beat Iowa.

Although NU split its last two series to Michigan State and Iowa – both missed opportunities to gain ground in the Big Ten race – Stevens said he is encouraged by the improvement his team has shown.

“Their backs have been up against the wall since the second (conference) series,” Stevens said. “They’re maintaining their ground and chipping away.”

But as the season winds down, each game becomes more important to the Cats’ hopes for making the tournament. And this season’s squad is far less experienced than the team that made the postseason a year ago – NU lost four senior starters, including a pitcher and a junior transfer who left as one of the team’s leading hitters.

Stevens insists that the young Cats have all of their pieces in place. Against Iowa, he said, NU combined a potent offense with masterful starting pitching and sound defense.

Starters Zach Schara, Mike Nall and Gabe Ribas combined to hold the Hawkeyes to just five earned runs over the weekend. The three bolster a stretch-run rotation that Stevens said can beat anybody when it’s throwing well.

The Cats offense could use some consistency itself. NU erupted for 16 runs in the first two games over the weekend only to score two more for the rest of the series. Even so, Stevens said the Cats don’t need to make any major fixes.

“You don’t sit there and try to change a whole lot of things,” Stevens said. “We were hitting the ball well – we were just hitting it at people.”

Stevens said the Cats will look to leadoff man Steve Haake and second hitter Eric Roeder to step up their productivity in the coming weeks.

Haake was saddled with the burden of replacing departed All-Big Ten shortstop Jeremy Kurella at the top of the order early this season. Kurella, who transferred to Central Florida after last season, was one of the most proficient run producers in team history. He also set the conference record for career stolen bases, which often put him in scoring position for hitters like catcher Joe Hietpas.

This year Haake and Roeder are responsible for being on base when Hietpas and the heart of the Cats’ order comes to the plate, something Haake said he is well aware of after a subpar hitting performance against Iowa.

“We set the table for those guys and we have to be on base,” Haake said.

Hitting shouldn’t be a problem for the Cats when the Panthers visit Evanston today. NU has scored 25 runs in its last three midweek games, two of which were wins.

But wins against nonconference opponents don’t factor into the Big Ten standings. Instead, the Cats await what Stevens calls a “12- to 14-movie trip” that could decide whether the team is still playing in mid-May.

As for the long bus ride to Penn State, Haake said the Cats will have plenty of occupying thoughts on the trip – not all of them baseball-related.

“I’m sure the teachers will give us a lot of reading,” Haake said.