Northwestern pitcher Dan Konecny was glowing after Tuesday’s game against Northern Illinois — but it wasn’t because of his throwing.
“He was pitching around me,” the senior boasted. “He had heard about my power.”
In his final game at Rocky Miller Park, Konecny recorded his first-ever collegiate at bat. NU Coach Paul Stevens pinch hit Konecny for freshman Caleb Fields in the Wildcats’ (24-26-1) final at bat of a 5-2 win over the Huskies (27-26).
“It was planned on my part, but definitely not on coach’s part,” Konecny said. “I did enough convincing, put on the eye black and was wearing a helmet while swinging the bat and talking to (Stevens).”
Konecny struck out looking on a 3-2 pitch, avoiding a walk but leaving his official career batting average at .000.
“The first pitch was right down the middle of the plate,” Konecny said. “I should have hit it a mile. But it was the first live ball I had seen in five years.”
Four other seniors also bid goodbye to their home field Tuesday, but the real story of the game was the performance of the freshman class.
Two freshmen stood out at positions where upperclassmen have dominated for most of the year, with Geoff Dietz catching for pitcher Ryan Myers.
Myers threw 114 pitches over eight innings, giving up just five hits and two earned runs. In picking up his first collegiate win, Myers racked up a career-high eight strikeouts and saw a career-high in innings pitched.
“Today I had better control,” Myers said. “The first couple of innings were a little shaky, but about the fourth inning I got into a groove. I started hitting my spots.”
The Cats orchestrated a four-run rally in the bottom of the third inning, taking a 4-1 lead that wouldn’t let up and enabling Myers to be more comfortable on the mound.
“It’s different pitching in a 5-1 game than in a 0-0 game,” Myers said. “I loosened up a little bit and started going after hitters a little bit more, not worrying about people on base and stuff.”
Myers threw better than he has all year, Stevens said. But the coach remembered where he last saw Myers pitch that well.
“We saw it in high school, and that’s why we recruited him,” Stevens said. “He was a kid who took his team to state playoffs and regionals and those types of things, and I think you saw a glimpse of somebody who you may see quite a bit of next year. It was pretty impressive.”
Dietz showed off his arm in the top of the second inning, gunning down Northern Illinois’ Mike Brown, a player Stevens described as “one of the fastest guys in that whole conference,” on an attempted steal.
On the offensive end, sophomore Mark Ori went 4 for 4 with an RBI and a run. Freshman Caleb Fields looked more comfortable than he has recently in the field and at the plate, as he went 1 for 3 with a run and a stolen base.
Although it was the seniors’ day to shine, impressive showings by underclassmen gave Stevens reason to be excited.
“Freshman catcher, freshman pitcher, what Caleb did out in the field, stealing a base and scoring a run — those things are big,” Stevens said. “I’m very interested in the evolution of some of these guys right now, how some of these young guys are really starting to roll.”
