Northwestern baseball coach Paul Stevens knows he wants to win every game.

He also knows a 6-11 start, like the one the Wildcats struggled through this season, is not the end of the world.

Stevens said the Cats approach every game the same, be it against reigning Big Ten champion Michigan or Dartmouth, the Ivy League doormat NU roughed up to end its nine-day residency in Florida last weekend.

But the Cats also know when the real season starts: when they trade in locations like Bradenton, Fla., and Dallas for places like Minneapolis, Minn., and State College, Pa., – when the conference games begin.

While it may dominate on the gridiron and hardwood, the Big Ten is fairly anemic when it comes to the baseball diamond. Only four Big Ten teams had overall winning records last year and only Michigan advanced to the NCAA regionals, receiving an automatic bid for winning the conference.

And, like any one-bid conference in any sport, success against conference teams takes precedence over anything.

Last year’s team got that. After a 3-15 start that included 11 straight losses, NU split or won every series with a conference opponent, winning 21 games and finishing second in the conference.

It was a team that surprised nearly everyone. And a team that went 5-21 in non-conference games, losing to powerhouses like Valparaiso, who was 7-21 when it rolled into Evanston last April, and NAIA school Robert Morris in midweek games.

But none of that mattered come the weekend, as NU steamrolled its way through yet another conference opponent.

This year’s Cats are missing significant pieces from last year’s squad that could impact their fortunes in conference play.

Pitchers Julio Siberio, George Kontos and Big Ten pitcher of the year Dan Brauer, who accounted for more than half of the team’s wins?

Gone.

Siberio graduated and Kontos and Brauer left a year early after being drafted in the fifth and sixth rounds of the Major League Baseball draft.

Anthony Wycklendt and Pat McMahon, who powered the middle of the Cats’ lineup for the better part of the last three years?

Gone.

“I’m not going to sit there and tell you it’s easy to lose two juniors like Kontos and Brauer and not have trials and tribulations,” Stevens said.

Fortunately for NU, the early non-conference games also serve as a proving ground.

Stevens has used 12 different pitchers this year, including five freshmen. Established starters are finding new places in the field, like sophomore Tommy Finn playing second base after starting nearly every game at shortstop last year.

“A lot of things are uncertain,” senior outfielder Caleb Fields said.

This year’s Cats got a conference preview against Ohio State on March 22, the team that bludgeoned them 8-0 in the first game of the conference tournament last year.

After jumping out to an early lead, NU allowed six runs in the bottom of the fifth inning and dropped the game, 11-6.

But it was just another meaningful, meaningless loss. A blown lead that doesn’t count against the Cats’ conference record and will mean next to nothing if the team can duplicate last year’s success.

“(Early season losses) always mean things,” Stevens said. “But do I let them frustrate me? No.”