The Northwestern Club Baseball team is on a mission from God – the baseball gods.
“Sometimes the gods smile,” said shortstop Justin Vader, a Weinberg junior, “but sometimes they strike you down with bolts of lightning.”
Apparently, they were feeling good last Saturday.
The NU Club Baseball team won the Wisconsin Illinois Baseball Conference Championships last weekend at Carson Park in Eau Claire, Wis.
Vader said the team was inspired to victory by an ashcan that was a symbol from the dugout in the sky.
“It’s a garbage can with an ashtray, three feet tall,” said pitcher Paul Jury, a Weinberg junior. “It was attached to the wall. Someone procured it and we brought it to our rooms. We took it to the game and as long as we were winning, it became an idol. The trophy fit perfectly in it, so it was meant to be.”
Sporting a first-place WIBC conference record of 10-2, the top-ranked NU team defeated Marquette to win the tournament. Including four fall games and tournament wins, the NU team’s season ended with 18 wins and three losses.
Medill junior Luke Winn pitched a no-hitter in the semifinal game against Wisconsin-Eau Claire.
“It’s kind of impressive to beat all these teams,” Winn said. “We were the No. 1 seed and we cruised through. Our coach pitched the first game, and I threw a no-hitter for the first time in my life.”
Coach and Weinberg senior Jeff Purdie, who had a 4-0 record as a pitcher, said the team has come a long way in two years in the WIBC.
“In our second year in the organization, we feel we have something to play for when we go on the field,” Purdie said. “We’re a very good young team. We’ll have a very solid team for next year.”
Two years ago, the NU team was not in a league and instead played with other local colleges who wanted to set up games, Purdie said.
“We scheduled games randomly,” he said. “We’re lucky because there are enough baseball teams within driving distance to form an A-team league.”
The seven-team WIBC is in its second year as an organization. Some of the schools, such as Loyola, Marquette, DePaul and Columbia College, do not have varsity baseball teams, Winn said.
“The level of competition is pretty impressive,” Purdie said. “Club baseball is an outlet for the players who didn’t get a chance to win a scholarship for Division I baseball. Some of the players have spent some time at varsity but most of us are the cast-offs and the cuts.”
Last year, the NU team was one game away from winning the championship but lost to Wisconsin.
“It was a bummer,” Vader said. “More than anything, we love playing baseball and don’t ask for much in return. We hang out.”
A typical game-day experience includes waking up on their hotel room floor and beds at 10:30 a.m squinting from the daylight after a long night of “planning game strategy,” Winn said.
“In our first semifinal game, the team was eating a bunch of doughnuts and chugging down o.j. in the dugout,” Winn said.
