Northwestern University Athletics
Friday, April 13
Bloomington, Ind.
2:05 p.m.
Northwestern
at
Indiana
Schedule Update: 'Cats Prepare for Road Test at No. 10 Indiana
4/12/2018 5:32:00 PM | Baseball
SCHEDULE UPDATE (8:05 a.m. CT): Due to inclement weather in this weekend's forecast, Northwestern and Indiana will play a doubleheader on Friday. Game one will begin at 2:05 p.m. CT with game two following 45 minutes after the completion of game one. The series finale is scheduled for Saturday at 1:05 p.m. CT
EVANSTON, Ill. – Northwestern travels to No. 10 Indiana this weekend for a three-game stint in Bloomington against the Hoosiers.
All three games will be available on stream via BTNPlus/BTN2Go and all games will be available on the airwaves via WNUR.
The Wildcats (9-17, 1-8 B1G) aim to find good form after their tough test at home last weekend versus Michigan and make a statement against a top conference opponent in Indiana (23-6 overall, 3-2 B1G).
Indiana boasts the most overall wins in the Big Ten, but their conference record places them right in the middle of the pack at seventh. The Hoosiers will face the Wildcats at the end of a 10-game home stand. The Hoosiers were victorious in seven of the eight previous games against in-state opponents Butler, Purdue, and Indiana State.
Indiana will throw RHP Jonathan Stiever (3-1, 3.16 ERA) in the opener, before turning the ball to Pauly Milto (5-2, 1.91 ERA) on Saturday and Cam Beauchamp (3-0, 2.91 ERA) on Sunday.
The Hoosiers entered the week ranked in all six polls. IU is ranked 10th by D1Baseball.com, 11th by Perfect Game, 12th by the NCBWA , 13th in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll, 15th by Collegiate Baseball, and 16th by Baseball America.
Northwestern enters the series coming off a 2-0 shutout victory over Notre Dame on Wednesday night. Seven Wildcat pitchers combined to keep the Fighting Irish off of the scoreboard. Jack Claeys and Casey O'Laughlin were responsible for driving in runs. Leo Kaplan recorded three of Northwestern's six stolen bases. The Wildcats have swiped six bags on three occasions this season.
RETURN TO INDIANA
The Wildcats are looking forward to their return to Bart Kaufman Field this weekend. The last time Northwestern visited Bloomington was for the 2017 Big Ten Baseball Tournament, where the club made a memorable run to the title game for the first time since 1984. The Wildcats knocked off No. 2 Michigan, No. 3 Minnesota and No. 4 Maryland during the run.
SHUTTING THE DOOR
The senior dup of Tommy Bordignon and Richard Fordon has closed the door for the Wildcats this season. Tommy Bordingnon (0-0, 3.50 ERA) and Richard Fordon (1-2, 4.50 ERA) are tied for the team lead with 10 appearances. Bordignon leads the club with three saves, while Fordon has a pair.
ON THE BUMP
Associate head coach/pitching coach Josh Reynolds has elected to go with the same rotation for the series: Quinn Lavelle (3-3, 2.75 ERA), Hank Christie (2-3, 5.40 ERA), and Jack Pagliarini (1-2, 2.89 ERA).
Lavelle has been a standout for Northwestern in his rookie campaign. The lefty's 2.75 ERA ranks eighth among all conference pitchers and his 20.1 innings pitched in conference play leads the league. He owns a 27-to-20 strikeout-to-walk ratio and is holding opposing batters to a .232 clip, which ranks in the top-15 among the Big Ten. Lavelle was named Big Ten Pitcher of the Week (April 2) after throwing a complete-game shutout at Maryland, while fanning a career-high eight batters. He was the first Northwestern rookie pitcher to earn the honor since Brandon Magallones did so in 2012.
Christie will make his 23rd consecutive start on Saturday. The sophomore went 6.0 innings in his last outing on Saturday against Michigan. Christie fanned three batters in the outing, allowing three runs, one earned, on six hits. He has tallied three-or-more strikeouts on four occasions this season. The Oak Park, Illinois, native went 4.0 innings last season when he faced the Hoosiers at Miller Park, allowing five runs on seven hits and striking out two.
Pagliarini owns the 10th lowest ERA in the conference with a 2.89 mark and the 10th most strikeouts with 43. He has a conference-best 22 strikeouts in Big Ten game and he has not fanned fewer than seven batters in each of his three Big Ten starts. Opponents are hitting just .212 against the lefty this season. The Southpaw ranks second in the league 10.37 strikeouts per nine innings. Last time out versus Michigan, Pagliarini matched his career-high with eight strikeouts in 4.1 innings. He only allowed two hits and one run in the 20 Wolverine batters he faced.
CLAEYS IS CRUSHING
Jack Claeys' bat has been red hot for the Wildcats. In the last 10 games, Claeys is batting .342 with 13 hits, five home runs, 10 RBI, seven runs scores and a slugging percentage of .737. The senior's five home runs tie him for eighth most in the league and most on NU, one ahead of Willie Bourbon (4). On the year, Claeys is batting .266 at the dish with a .494 slugging percentage. His .688 slugging percentage in the conference games places him seventh in the category, and his four conference home runs rank him second. He has homered in all four conference series this season.
(NOT) GOING DOWN SWINGING
The team as a whole currently sits at fourth-best in the conference at not getting sent down on strikeouts. Following the example of second baseman Alex Erro, who is one of the toughest strikeouts in the nation, only going down swinging once every 12.4 at-bats. The mark is the second best in the conference and ranks 46th nationally.
MR. STEAL YOUR BAG
As a team, the Wildcats lead the Big Ten and rank seventh nationally with 2.33 steals per game. Northwestern ranks second in the Big Ten and 15th nationally with 58 stolen bases this season. Alex Erro and Jack Dunn are tied for second in the Big Ten with 12 stolen bases each. Nine Northwestern players have at least two stolen bases this season.
OFFENSIVE FACTS AND FIGURES
Alex Erro's streak of 14 consecutive games with a hit came to an end on Saturday, April 6, in game one against Michigan. The streak marked the longest by a Northwestern player since Erro had a hit streak of 17 in the 2017 campaign. Erro also had a reached-base streak of 17 games come to an end in the ballgame.
Alex Erro leads the club with eight multi-hit games, including seven contests with a pair of hits.
Jack Claeys leads the club with five multi-RBI games. Claeys drove in four runs during Northwestern's 6-5 loss to Maryland on March 31. He also has five multi-hit games, including a 2-for-4 performance last time out against Notre Dame.
Willie Bourbon is in the midst of a three-game hit streak and has reached base in eight consecutive games entering the series. Both streaks are the longest active streaks on NU.
EVANSTON, Ill. – Northwestern travels to No. 10 Indiana this weekend for a three-game stint in Bloomington against the Hoosiers.
All three games will be available on stream via BTNPlus/BTN2Go and all games will be available on the airwaves via WNUR.
The Wildcats (9-17, 1-8 B1G) aim to find good form after their tough test at home last weekend versus Michigan and make a statement against a top conference opponent in Indiana (23-6 overall, 3-2 B1G).
Indiana boasts the most overall wins in the Big Ten, but their conference record places them right in the middle of the pack at seventh. The Hoosiers will face the Wildcats at the end of a 10-game home stand. The Hoosiers were victorious in seven of the eight previous games against in-state opponents Butler, Purdue, and Indiana State.
Indiana will throw RHP Jonathan Stiever (3-1, 3.16 ERA) in the opener, before turning the ball to Pauly Milto (5-2, 1.91 ERA) on Saturday and Cam Beauchamp (3-0, 2.91 ERA) on Sunday.
The Hoosiers entered the week ranked in all six polls. IU is ranked 10th by D1Baseball.com, 11th by Perfect Game, 12th by the NCBWA , 13th in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll, 15th by Collegiate Baseball, and 16th by Baseball America.
Northwestern enters the series coming off a 2-0 shutout victory over Notre Dame on Wednesday night. Seven Wildcat pitchers combined to keep the Fighting Irish off of the scoreboard. Jack Claeys and Casey O'Laughlin were responsible for driving in runs. Leo Kaplan recorded three of Northwestern's six stolen bases. The Wildcats have swiped six bags on three occasions this season.
RETURN TO INDIANA
The Wildcats are looking forward to their return to Bart Kaufman Field this weekend. The last time Northwestern visited Bloomington was for the 2017 Big Ten Baseball Tournament, where the club made a memorable run to the title game for the first time since 1984. The Wildcats knocked off No. 2 Michigan, No. 3 Minnesota and No. 4 Maryland during the run.
SHUTTING THE DOOR
The senior dup of Tommy Bordignon and Richard Fordon has closed the door for the Wildcats this season. Tommy Bordingnon (0-0, 3.50 ERA) and Richard Fordon (1-2, 4.50 ERA) are tied for the team lead with 10 appearances. Bordignon leads the club with three saves, while Fordon has a pair.
ON THE BUMP
Associate head coach/pitching coach Josh Reynolds has elected to go with the same rotation for the series: Quinn Lavelle (3-3, 2.75 ERA), Hank Christie (2-3, 5.40 ERA), and Jack Pagliarini (1-2, 2.89 ERA).
Lavelle has been a standout for Northwestern in his rookie campaign. The lefty's 2.75 ERA ranks eighth among all conference pitchers and his 20.1 innings pitched in conference play leads the league. He owns a 27-to-20 strikeout-to-walk ratio and is holding opposing batters to a .232 clip, which ranks in the top-15 among the Big Ten. Lavelle was named Big Ten Pitcher of the Week (April 2) after throwing a complete-game shutout at Maryland, while fanning a career-high eight batters. He was the first Northwestern rookie pitcher to earn the honor since Brandon Magallones did so in 2012.
Christie will make his 23rd consecutive start on Saturday. The sophomore went 6.0 innings in his last outing on Saturday against Michigan. Christie fanned three batters in the outing, allowing three runs, one earned, on six hits. He has tallied three-or-more strikeouts on four occasions this season. The Oak Park, Illinois, native went 4.0 innings last season when he faced the Hoosiers at Miller Park, allowing five runs on seven hits and striking out two.
Pagliarini owns the 10th lowest ERA in the conference with a 2.89 mark and the 10th most strikeouts with 43. He has a conference-best 22 strikeouts in Big Ten game and he has not fanned fewer than seven batters in each of his three Big Ten starts. Opponents are hitting just .212 against the lefty this season. The Southpaw ranks second in the league 10.37 strikeouts per nine innings. Last time out versus Michigan, Pagliarini matched his career-high with eight strikeouts in 4.1 innings. He only allowed two hits and one run in the 20 Wolverine batters he faced.
CLAEYS IS CRUSHING
Jack Claeys' bat has been red hot for the Wildcats. In the last 10 games, Claeys is batting .342 with 13 hits, five home runs, 10 RBI, seven runs scores and a slugging percentage of .737. The senior's five home runs tie him for eighth most in the league and most on NU, one ahead of Willie Bourbon (4). On the year, Claeys is batting .266 at the dish with a .494 slugging percentage. His .688 slugging percentage in the conference games places him seventh in the category, and his four conference home runs rank him second. He has homered in all four conference series this season.
(NOT) GOING DOWN SWINGING
The team as a whole currently sits at fourth-best in the conference at not getting sent down on strikeouts. Following the example of second baseman Alex Erro, who is one of the toughest strikeouts in the nation, only going down swinging once every 12.4 at-bats. The mark is the second best in the conference and ranks 46th nationally.
MR. STEAL YOUR BAG
As a team, the Wildcats lead the Big Ten and rank seventh nationally with 2.33 steals per game. Northwestern ranks second in the Big Ten and 15th nationally with 58 stolen bases this season. Alex Erro and Jack Dunn are tied for second in the Big Ten with 12 stolen bases each. Nine Northwestern players have at least two stolen bases this season.
OFFENSIVE FACTS AND FIGURES
Alex Erro's streak of 14 consecutive games with a hit came to an end on Saturday, April 6, in game one against Michigan. The streak marked the longest by a Northwestern player since Erro had a hit streak of 17 in the 2017 campaign. Erro also had a reached-base streak of 17 games come to an end in the ballgame.
Alex Erro leads the club with eight multi-hit games, including seven contests with a pair of hits.
Jack Claeys leads the club with five multi-RBI games. Claeys drove in four runs during Northwestern's 6-5 loss to Maryland on March 31. He also has five multi-hit games, including a 2-for-4 performance last time out against Notre Dame.
Willie Bourbon is in the midst of a three-game hit streak and has reached base in eight consecutive games entering the series. Both streaks are the longest active streaks on NU.
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