Northwestern baseball coach Paul Stevens said the best part of Tuesday’s game against Valparaiso was the way his team swung the bat.
And swing the bat they did, as the Wildcats busted out in the second inning with eight runs on seven hits.
Northwestern (12-11-1) maintained this lead, winning the non-conference home game 13-7.
“I thought we hit the ball very hard,” Stevens said. “And when we didn’t get base hits, I thought we hit the ball at people as well as we have for a while.”
NU’s strong hitting, coupled with Valparaiso’s fielding errors, allowed 12 NU hitters to come to the plate in the second. Left-fielder Anthony Wycklendt had a single, home run and two RBI in the inning. The Cats had a 9-0 lead after their power inning, but it was too early to set the game on cruise-control.
Maybe it took the Crusaders (4-17) a little longer to warm up because they arrived at Rocky Miller Park 15 minutes after the schedule starting time. By the fourth inning the Crusaders were ready — and went on a hitting streak, racking up six runs off pitchers Evan Blesoff and Ryan Myers.
“We started off strong like we have in the past couple games, but for whatever reasons, in the middle of games we kind of let down,” catcher Dan Pohlman said. “That’s obviously a concern because its something that’s happened a lot in the past couple games.
“It just always seems to (happen). Just a bloop here, a walk there, hit one past us — little things we need to eliminate from our defensive game.”
The Cats said they like to use non-conference games as a practice scenarios for the weekend’s Big Ten matches. The coaches allow players to clock in time at different positions and to improve at their regular positions.
Seven pitchers, led by struggling starter Dan Konecny, took the mound for NU. Konecny threw three scoreless innings, and Stevens said he was pleased with his pitcher’s performance Tuesday.
In the field, Wycklendt, who was the designated hitter against Indiana this past weekend, played in left field and Pohlman, who started Tuesday at catcher, also pitched and played center field. Pohlman said he hadn’t pitched or played in the outfield since the season started.
“There are some guys who are banged up a little bit and obviously some guys who are out for the whole year who we weren’t expecting, ” Stevens said. “So we are trying to give people more opportunity during midweek.”
Shortstop Jon Mikrut said the team hopes to reproduce both today’s strong defense and hitting in upcoming Big Ten games. Mikrut went 4 for 5 and had five RBI.
“Midweek games get us ready for the weekend,” Mikrut said. “They are stepping stones for the weekend — we have to play hard, do our fundamentals, and stay sharp.”
