Northwestern’s baseball team swept its first series of the season two weeks ago with timely hitting and strong defense. But last weekend, the Wildcats tried another approach: a high-powered offense.
In winning two of three games, NU (4-1) belted 32 hits and smacked five homers to tally 38 runs. The offensive onslaught led the Cats to a third-place finish at the Coca-Cola Classic in Mobile, Ala.
In the round-robin tournament, the Cats lost 15-7 to South Alabama, but knocked off St. John’s 18-12 and beat eventual tournament champion Southern Mississippi 5-1.
NU coach Paul Stevens said he was pleased with the way his team played — with a bit more luck, he said, the Cats could have squeezed out a first-place finish.
“It could have been better,” Stevens said. “But I will take what we had and keep building from there.”
The Cats began the weekend with their convincing victory over Southern Mississippi. Junior Dan Konecny (2-0) allowed one run in 7.1 innings to earn the win. The right-handed hurler might have pitched more, but Stevens limited him to 100 pitches. He was relieved by freshman Dan Brauer, who threw 1.2 scoreless innings to record the save.
Senior catcher Ken Padgett belted his first two hits of the season — both doubles — and freshman designated hitter Mark Ori, who also pitched an inning against South Alabama (3-5), reached base three times and drove in two runs.
While the Cats had hoped to carry their momentum into the second game, the squad’s pitchers had trouble taming South Alabama’s offense.
Sophomore starter J.A. Happ (1-1) allowed eight runs — five earned — in 4.1 innings of work. While Happ wasn’t particularly effective, the Cats defense didn’t help him much.
Shortstop Jon Mikrut committed four errors, giving him eight in five games.
Even in the loss, the Cats’ bats weren’t silenced. Padgett continued his offensive outburst with three hits. Senior second baseman Eric Roeder, last week’s Big Ten Player of the Week, added two hits, and junior centerfielder David Gresky clubbed his second home run of the year.
The Cats ended their weekend with a victory over St. John’s (0-3). While NU’s pitching had trouble keeping Red Storm hitters off base, the Cats’ offense managed to set the pace.
Three NU sluggers hit home runs against the Red Storm. Padgett, Gresky and senior first baseman Travis Tharp all went deep.
Stevens said he was most impressed by the offensive output of Padgett, who went 8-for-11 with three doubles, a home run and five RBIs for the weekend. He was named NU Male Athlete of the Week as well as Big Ten Player of the Week.
“He definitely had a weekend to remember,” Stevens said. “Kenny was a huge sparkplug this weekend.”
