Junior Chris Hayes played second and third base March 20 against Vermont. Three days later, Hayes played pitcher and shortstop in the game against Stetson.
Many college baseball teams have players who play multiple positions, but few coaches move players around as much as Northwestern coach Paul Stevens. Movements like Hayes’ are standard fare on the NU baseball team.
“Sometimes umpires look at me and go, ‘I haven’t seen this much movement since Little League,'” Stevens said. “It’s just not your traditional baseball team. It’s almost like musical chairs. There are guys everywhere.”
With two Big Ten pitchers of the week — junior J.A. Happ and sophomore Dan Brauer — and experienced pitchers such as senior Dan Konecny, Stevens said he expects his starting pitchers to lead the Wildcats as they open their conference season against the Hoosiers on Friday at Rocky Miller Park.
But Stevens said the players supporting the team will be juniors Doug Beatty, Matt Brimmer and Chris Hayes and senior Dan Pohlman, who either have changed positions since last season or routinely flip flop positions within games.
“I think a lot of the success is due to those guys being able to step their game up,” Stevens said. “Those are guys who don’t get a lot of recognition. There’s not this multitude of star-studded players. It’s a group of guys who are just willing to do whatever it takes.”
The Cats have just 28 players on their roster, so Stevens said he tries to recruit two-way players — those who can both pitch and play another position.
The players’ flexibility gives NU (9-9-1) great depth.
Now in his fourth season, Pohlman has played three different positions. In past years, he played pitcher and left field, but he moved to catcher this season after last year’s starter graduated and the backup, junior Pat McMahon, was injured.
Stevens said Pohlman’s adjustment to his new position has been unbelievable.
Though Pohlman always had assumed catcher would be an easy job — just catching pitches — he said catching has turned out to require more focus than any other position he has played.
“I’m mentally more involved,” Pohlman said. “I don’t have a chance to not be focused.”
Pohlman has thrown out 12 base-runners in 21 attempts this season.
Hayes, another versatile player, said he often will come in to pitch the eighth inning. In the ninth, Hayes often replaces Jon Mikrut at shortstop while Mikrut pitches the last inning.
During a game in Florida over spring break, Hayes said an umpire seemed surprised to see Hayes starting at first base since he had pitched and played shortstop the night before.
“The umpire was giving me a hard time,” Hayes said. “He asked if I played every position on the field.”
Stevens said though Brimmer and Beatty didn’t get much playing time last year, they have done a good job this season stabilizing left and center field. Brimmer played either second or third base until this season, when he asked to be moved to the outfield.
“I wasn’t very solid defensively (in the infield),” Brimmer said. “I can use my speed better to track balls down now.”
Stevens said that if the Cats pitch well and play a good defense, they will have no trouble handling the Hoosiers (15-7). NU won seven of its last nine games and has a 6-4 record in opening day games over the past 10 years.
“I think we are really champing at the bit to get going in conference play to see if we can get to some of the places we want to go,” he said.
