Nine different pitchers - one per inning - toed the rubber for Northwestern against Trinity International on Wednesday night.
And it wasn’t because the players who took the mound struggled. In fact, six of the nine pitchers held the Trojans hitless, and only two of nine walked batters in the Wildcats’ 12-2 win.
“We needed to throw all of them because they all need to work in that scenario where they come in and have to shut something down,” coach Paul Stevens said. “Sometimes that’s quick one-inning stints, and that’s what we were trying to do today, get that sense of urgency that you had to get in there and get it done.”
Stevens said he liked what he saw from his pitching staff, specifically pointing out how freshmen Henry Brooke and Nick Friar, who took the mound early in the game, “came in and just attacked hitters.”
Brooke and Friar each had one of the team’s seven strikeouts, and Friar was one of four pitchers to sit the Trojans down in order.
While NU’s nine twirlers allowed just five hits and two runs, the team racked up 15 hits and 12 runs of its own en route to the Cats’ first midweek win this season.
Just like Stevens plugged a hearty number of hurlers into the contest, he mixed in a handful of different position players, too, finding room for 12 to take the field.
“We were just trying to get a lot of guys that haven’t had playing time, and it was good to see them coming in and swinging the bats and having some fun doing it,” Stevens said. “The biggest thing is we needed to see some other kids getting some opportunities so we have some more options come weekends. We did a lot of different things this past weekend (against Minnesota), and we’re going to probably keep doing a lot of different things. If we’re going to be doing those things, we have to see if we’ve got a few other pieces to the puzzle that may fit.”
Two NU players that seemed to fit well in Wednesday’s jigsaw were freshmen Patrick Miller and Jake Straub, who both went 3-for-5. Straub, the only player for the Cats to stay at the same spot – behind the dish – for the entire game, attributed the team’s offensive outburst mostly to facing pitchers who aren’t quite as overpowering as those they might see in conference play.
The catcher, though, was quick to add to his assessment: “It’s no excuse that we shouldn’t be able to translate (the offensive production) into Big Tens this weekend.”
Freshman Kyle Ruchim agreed that there’s no reason the Cats shouldn’t expect to win against Purdue in their upcoming series, emphasizing the team’s confidence level after its first Big Ten series win against Minnesota.
“We all had a lot of confidence coming from the weekend series in Minnesota that just carried over to (Wednesday),” Ruchim said. “A lot of positive mindsets. When you’re positive, you’re going to do a lot of good things in baseball.”
Ruchim doesn’t expect the Cats’ momentum to slow down anytime soon, hinting the game against Trinity International wasn’t an aberration.
NU is, after all, riding its first three-game winning streak of the season.
“The last game we played (at Minnesota) hopefully will be our turning point of the season,” Ruchim said. “It’s one thing to win a game here and there, but it’s another thing to put two together in the same weekend. It just got everything rolling. We’ll see this weekend, I could be wrong, but I think everybody’s very confident now in our capabilities. And we really think we can compete in the Big Ten.”
