Five of the nine regulars on Northwestern’s starting lineup have 10 or fewer RBIs.
But be assured that junior center fielder David Gresky — who had 10 RBIs in Tuesday’s 36-10 crushing of Chicago State — is not one of those five.
Gresky now leads NU (13-12, 5-5 Big Ten) with 26 runs knocked in. But Gresky continues to downplay his monster performance, which included two home runs and six base hits.
“Truthfully, (the Cougars) weren’t very good,” he said. “They were throwing stuff over the plate all day, and they weren’t throwing it hard so it wasn’t difficult to adjust.”
Although 10 RBIs against conference opponents is harder to do, Gresky promised to make the most of his plate appearances, starting with Penn State this weekend.
“I’m gonna try to do it,” he added with a laugh. “I mean, I got eight at-bats against (Chicago State) and I’ve never gotten that many in my life — not even in high school.”
Instead, Gresky placed more importance on what the lopsided win did for his team’s spirits.
“It was a total boost for the entire team’s confidence,” he said. “It shows that we can really pound the lower teams.”
Not to be outdone was freshman Anthony Wycklendt, who had two long balls of his own to go along with nine RBI.
Wycklendt was speechless about his day at the plate.
“It was just unbelievable, I don’t know what else to say,” he said.
Doing the Splits: When the Cats travel to State College, Pa., to take on Penn State this weekend, splits are something they’ll try to avoid.
The Cats are currently 5-5 in Big Ten play and have gone .500 in each of their first three series against Ohio State, Michigan State and Purdue.
“We definitely need to stop splitting,” Gresky said. “You don’t ever want to do it, but at least we haven’t lost any ground.”
And NU has proved it can rally back.
“Splits may be unsatisfying, but it feels great when you come back to salvage them,” Gresky said.
Schedule Squeeze: NU was due for its satisfying win against Chicago State, considering the rest of its nonconference schedule has been arduous.
The Cats opened on the road against Missouri, ranked in Baseball America’s preseason Top 25, upsetting the Tigers 5-3. Since that game, the Cats have been on the road all year, kicking off their Big Ten season against the Buckeyes — Baseball America’s favorite to win the Big Ten.
“If you look at our schedule, it hasn’t been some slouch slate,” NU coach Paul Stevens said. “We’ve played Top-25 teams and other respected teams like BYU, Southern Mississippi and Southern Alabama. And we’ve done it with a lot of young guys, too.”
Things should be a little bit easier for the Cats the rest of the way — half of their remaining 24 games are at Rocky Miller Park, including an 11-game homestand that ends with another game against Chicago State on May 6.
Around the Horn: Mikrut was able to keep his batting average over the .400 mark against Chicago State. The sophomore went 2-for-5 and his average now stands at .404 — good for second in the Big Ten … All four of the starting pitchers NU sent against Purdue this past weekend are among the Big Ten’s top 10 in ERA. Freshman Dan Brauer is second in the conference with an ERA of 2.22, while Dan Konecny, J.A. Happ and Mark Ori are 4th, 8th and 10th, respectively … Ori has struck out at the plate 15 times this season. Ironically, that’s the same number of people he has struck out on the mound.
