Northwestern University Athletics
The 2000 Baseball Season in Review
5/26/2000 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 26, 2000
EVANSTON, Ill. - The Northwestern baseball team enjoyed one of its most successful seasons during the 13-year tenure of head coach Paul Stevens. The Wildcats won 30 games for just the third time in that span, and advanced to the six-team Big Ten Tournament for the first time since 1995 with a 13-15 conference record.
A late-season spurt pushed NU into the Big Ten championships. The Wildcats took three out of four from Purdue on the season's penultimate weekend, then came back and swept the first two of four games from Penn State at Rocky Miller Park to clinch the bid. The final regular-season win came in dramatic fashion, as Matt Thompson (Libertyville, Ill./Libertyville) hit a two-run, pinch-hit home run and Jason Anderson (Rockford, Ill./East) followed with a pinch-hit homer of his own to give the 'Cats a 12-11 victory over the Nittany Lions. Unfortunately, the Wildcats were bounced from the postseason after just two games, falling to Minnesota (8-4) and Ohio State (4-2). The game with the Buckeyes was the fastest in Big Ten Tournament history, taking just 1:37.
Another highlight during the season came on the spring trip to Florida. The Wildcats went 8-1 in the Sunshine State, sandwiching four-game win streaks around a 4-2 loss to defending NCAA champion Miami (Fla.) and the Hurricanes' Mark Light Stadium. In Big Ten play, Northwestern gained splits against Indiana and regular-season champion Minnesota -- the Wildcats most successful series with the Gophers since 1995 -- and took three of four from Michigan State.
Offensively, a veteran squad was led at the top of the lineup. For the first time in school history, four different players could boast of 200 career hits -- seniors Pat Thompson (Libertyville, Ill./Libertyville), J.P. Williamson (Oak Park, Ill./River Forest) and Bob Dainton (Mokena, Ill./Lockport) along with junior Jeremy Kurella (Dunedin, Fla./Dunedin). In addition, Kurella set school single-season records for stolen bases (41) and at-bats (235) and tied the school mark for hits (81). Another junior, Joe Hietpas (Appleton, Wis./North), led the team in overall hitting and RBI and was a defensive stalwart at catcher, throwing out nearly 50 percent of potential base-stealers. As a team, Northwestern hit .317, the fourth-best mark in school history.
On the mound, Northwestern used a 1-2-3 punch of sophomores Zach Schara (Madison, Wis./West) and Gabe Ribas (Brunswick, Maine/Brunswick) and senior Dan Padgett (Littleton, Colo./Arapahoe). Schara set a school record by pitching 106 innings and struck out 95 batters on the season, including a school-record 16 on February 25 against UNC-Wilmington. He and Ribas were near the top of the Big Ten in earned-run average all season long, while Padgett -- a starter for the first time in his career -- came on strong and finished in the top five in that category, as well.
Northwestern was well-represented on the All-Big Ten teams. Kurella and Schara were first-team selections, while Ribas earned second team and Dainton, Hietpas and Padgett were third-team picks. Kurella, a shortstop who began the season with a 20-game hitting streak and ended it with a 13-game streak, was also named Third Team All-America by Collegiate Baseball.
