Although the Northwestern baseball team is fresh off a trip to sunny New Mexico, head coach Paul Stevens likened his team’s 2-5 this season start to a case of the flu.
“You feel well enough to get up and do a few things, but a lot of little things are achy and sore,” Stevens said after his team lost two of three to the Lobos over the weekend. “The good news is we were able to get out of bed and win a game. The bad news is we still can’t function 100 percent.”
The Wildcats sent three seniors to the mound in Ryan Bos, Zach Schara and Gabe Ribas, but New Mexico accumulated an alarming 40 runs.
Fortunately for the Cats, their offense showed signs of improvement from last weekend, when NU averaged fewer than four runs per game.
Bos took the mound Friday and allowed two earned runs in 5 1/3 innings. But the southpaw was victimized for three unearned runs and dropped to 0-2 despite a sterling 2.03 ERA.
After Bos left the game, NU relievers gave up eight earned runs in fewer than three innings, and the Cats took a 13-4 loss. New Mexico erupted for 20 hits and three home runs in the NU loss.
The Cats pounded out 10 hits off Lobos pitchers but left eight runners on base. Senior centerfielder Steve Haake’s three-run homer in the ninth was NU’s only extra-base hit in the game.
NU rebounded Saturday with an offensive show of its own. Behind a Travis Tharp home run and three-hit games from Haake and catcher Ken Padgett, the Cats scored three runs in the first inning and never looked back en route to a 10-8 victory. Schara, who allowed three earned runs in six strong innings, evened his record at 1-1.
In the rubber game of the series, the Lobos touched Ribas for four runs in the first inning of a 19-7 NU loss. Outfielder Brandon Ackley hit his first home run of the season, a two-run shot in the third, and Haake had another 3-for-5 game. The leadoff hitter raised his season average to .375 after going 7-for-15 in the series.
“Hitting’s just a funny thing,” Haake said. “Sometimes you’re ripping it, sometimes you can’t buy a hit.”
Stevens admitted to having concerns about the team’s early-season difficulties on the mound, but he remained calm and confident that the Cats can turn it around.
“Some of the phases just haven’t come alive yet for us,” Stevens said. “I’ve been through this before. Past experience has shown that things are going to evolve for us – pitching, hitting, fielding, and baserunning.”
The pitching problems are paramount among Stevens’ worries. Returning most of a unit that finished sixth in the Big Ten last year with a 5.40 ERA, NU expected its staff to be one of the team’s strengths. However, the 2002 edition has posted a 7.35 ERA through the first seven games and allowed opponents to hit .374.
“Everything starts on the hill,” Stevens said. “At this point there are a lot of things I’m concerned about, but I think we’ll be able to rebound.”
Stevens praised the relief efforts of sophomore Dan Konecny and freshman James Happ, who has yet to allow a run in three appearances.
Stevens had the whole team in mind when he said he expects improvement as the season progresses.
“We’re shaking a few cobwebs out,” he said. “This is not a finger-pointing scenario. We’re all in the same boat, we just have to get everybody going in the same direction.”
