In the final game of Northwestern’s series against Minnesota, senior lefty Joe Muraski threw 102 pitches-in five innings.

Through the first three of his quintet, Muraski averaged 24.7 pitches per inning. But it wasn’t because the southpaw was struggling; he had allowed no runs on only one base hit to that point. The main variable was he had also struck out six batters through the same three innings, almost all on either a full count or a 2-2 count.

Coach Paul Stevens likes to emphasize cutting back on strikeouts and putting the ball in play more often.

“I don’t like strikeouts,” Stevens said after the Wildcats faced Ohio State on April 2. “The whole key to pitching is you make people put the ball in play.”

Stevens said he likes seeing pitchers get ahead in the count, and seeing those scenarios force hitters to swing the bat is more desirable than pitcher-exhausting strikeouts.

Muraski said he didn’t necessarily strike out six in his first three innings on purpose. The southpaw said he was just trying to “go after them and get them out any way possible.” Muraski said he was fine with his performance-after all, it worked. The senior did admit, though, that he was tired after tossing more than 100 pitches.

But Muraski wasn’t all strikeouts. In the fourth inning, he allowed a lead-off triple followed by a run-scoring single. He then induced a pop-up to sophomore second baseman Zach Morton and a fly ball caught by freshman centerfielder Arby Fields. In the fifth inning, he got his first batter to ground out, his second to fly out and his fourth to pop up. The difference between his strikeout-heavy innings and the times he let batters put the ball in play? He threw an average of 14.5 pitches over his last two innings-10 fewer than the average over his first three. With that average throughout the entire game, the hurler could have stayed in for seven innings rather than five. Stevens said he would rather have his starters pitch deeper into games than have them record a multitide of early strikeouts.

“The more people strike people out, the more pitches they have to throw, the shorter amount of time they’re in a ballgame,” Stevens said earlier this month.

In NU’s second contest against Minnesota, junior lefty Eric Jokisch displayed what Stevens often looks for during games. With the exception of a 26-pitch fourth inning, the southpaw averaged 11.3 pitches per inning. With six strikeouts spread over his eight-inning campaign, Jokisch let batters put the ball in play and drew four fly balls, three pop-ups and 11 ground balls for outs. Jokisch said he focuses on the first-pitch strike, which he calls “the main thing for a pitcher,” but not necessarily on strikeouts.

Jokisch’s 105-pitch outing paved the way for an easy ninth inning for closer Paul Snieder to preserve the Cats’ fourth Big Ten win.

In this weekend’s situation, the bullpen was ready to take on the extra load after Muraski ran up his pitch count early, but in the future, a situation could arise where the bullpen is worn down from previous games. At that point, Stevens could more fervently emphasize his fewer-strikeouts philosophy. Until then, the coach said he is proud of his pitchers when they can get the team through ballgames like Muraski did Sunday.

“Joe did a very good job of keeing us in the ballgame and getting us to a certain point and then we moved along,” Stevens said. [email protected]