Get ready for a battle on the mound.
This weekend’s baseball series between Northwestern (9-9, 2-2 Big Ten) and Michigan State (6-17, 0-4) is likely to come down to pitching.
Even though the Spartans’ 6.18 ERA is almost double the Wildcats’, both teams boast pitchers in the top 10 in the conference.
Junior Dan Konecny and freshman Mark Ori anchor the NU staff that boasts a 3.85 ERA — third best in the conference. Konecny and Ori have the second and third-best ERAs in the Big Ten at 2.03 and 2.21, respectively.
But Michigan State will counter with senior Bryan Gale, a recent Big Ten Pitcher of the Week, and sophomore Tim Day, who is still feeding off his complete-game win over Ohio on March 22.
“Gale and Day were two pitchers who did a tremendous job for them last year, and there’s no reason they can’t do a tremendous job for them again,” Stevens said. “Good pitching is going to shut down hitting any day of the week.”
NU had the worst batting average in the Big Ten last season with a .273 mark, and is again in the cellar with a .265 average. But sophomore Jon Mikrut leads the Cats with a .431 clip, putting him at the top of the league.
The team isn’t satisfied with its .500 record and needs to generate more run support for its pitchers.
“(A record of) 9-9 for Northwestern is usually a good start, but that’s not what we expected,” senior Dan Pohlman said. “With our good offense, defense and good pitching, we should have a lot more victories than we have now. That’s something the guys are starting to take personally.”
In last season’s matchup, the Spartans took two of three games from the Cats en route to Michigan State’s second-most successful season ever with 38 wins. But nine seniors graduated in 2002, leaving the team without the leadership and experience that earned its winning record.
The Spartans sit at the bottom of the conference standings after being swept in their opening series at Minnesota, last year’s regular season champion.
“I fully expect Michigan State to not roll over and die,” Stevens said. “I expect them to be fired up because they’re at home, and because of what happened to them last week against Minnesota.”
Playing any game on the road is tough for a team, but Stevens said the Cats have an advantage because they have played all 18 games this season away from Evanston.
“This is the only thing we know right now, being on the road,” Stevens said. “The only difference now is that it’s conference, and the team knows what’s at stake.”
After breaking even last weekend against preseason-favorite Ohio State, NU hopes to extend its winning streak as far as it can.
“Stealing two wins from Ohio State is definitely a positive, but still not what we wanted,” Pohlman said. “We wanted to go 4-0, but we’re still going to look to build off those big wins.”
For the Cats, who haven’t swept a conference team since finishing 4-0 against Iowa in 1998, this series against a struggling team might give NU the opportunity to break its streak.
“(Sweeping Michigan State) is definitely something we think we can do, something we’ve talked about since the beginning of the season,” sophomore pitcher J.A. Happ said. “This is a good as any weekend to do that.”
