Northwestern University Athletics
Wildcats Head to Alabama; Compete in Wiregrass Classic
3/4/2004 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 4, 2004
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EVANSTON, Ill. -
On the road again,
Just can't wait to get on the road again,
The life I love is playing baseball with my friends,
And I can't wait to get on the road again.
Borrowing and editing a few lines from Willie Nelson, Northwestern is on the road again this weekend, taking part in the Wiregrass Classic in Dothan, Ala. The tournament, hosted by Troy State University at Westgate Park, takes place from March 5-7. NU opens the tournament with a 2 p.m., Friday, March 5 tilt with Samford University (0-7). The Wildcats will play its second night game of the season, the following day, as the Troy State (6-0) game is scheduled for 6 p.m. NU plays its final game of the Classic at 10 a.m. Sunday morning vs. Nicholls State (6-4).
On the road is where NU has been living. Slated to play its first 20 games away from Rocky Miller Park, the Wildcats will have traveled 10,626 miles before they step foot on their home field. So far in 2004, NU has traveled to Phoenix, Ariz., Albuquerque, N.M., Gainesville, Fla., and this weekend, Dothan, Ala. Before the Wildcats' scheduled April 2 home opener with Indiana, they will hit the road one more time, spending nine days in Bradenton, Fla. In all, Northwestern will travel 13,086 miles to play 37 away games.
How is NU doing through the first three trips?
With nine games complete, the Northwestern baseball team isn't exactly where they want or thought they would be at this point in the season. The 'Cats enter this weekend on a four-game winless streak, losers of their last three. NU and New Mexico played to a 3-3 tie in the final game of the Ultimate Dugout Baseball Fiesta on Feb. 22.
In all the preseason publications, the Wildcat pitching staff was tabbed the strength of the team. So far, that hasn't been the case. NU has given up 75 runs (60 earned) in 77.0 innings for a 7.01 ERA. A season ago, the Wildcats led the Big Ten with a 3.99 ERA. Things are looking up, however. In their last three starts, all at the University of Florida, Wildcat starting pitchers threw 16.1 of the possible 27 innings, giving up seven earned runs for a 3.91 ERA. In their previous six starts (32.2 innings) they had given up 22 earned runs, a 6.15 ERA.
Junior J.A. Happ leads a veteran staff that returns all four starters from 2003. So far this season, Happ is averaging 6.1 innings in his first three starts and has a 2.41 ERA in 18.2 innings. He has struck out 23 (7.7 per game), which includes an 11-strikeout performance against then-No. 25 Florida. In that game (his last start) Happ threw 6.0 innings, gave up one run on one hit and was in line for the win until a bottom of the ninth walk-off grand slam won the game for the Gators. Sophomore Dan Brauer has pitched 17.1 innings, and currently has a 4.15 ERA. In his second start of the season vs. New Mexico, Brauer pitched seven and two-third innings without giving up a hit. The defense made three errors behind him, allowing three unearned runs to score.
As the pitching staff starts to turn itself around, the Wildcat offense needs to find some consistency. Through the first nine games, NU has never had less than five hits in a game and has produced three double-digit hit games in the process. The problem doesn't lie in getting the hits, it is in stringing the hits together to score runs. NU has scored only three runs in each of its last four games and six of its first nine. They average 4.56 runs per game.
Senior Jason Krynski, who splits his time between first base and right field, leads the Wildcats with a .400 batting average. The Niles West product is 14-for-35 with four doubles, a triple and one home run. Brauer is hitting .300 with a triple. Freshman Caleb Fields continues to improve in his first year of major college baseball. Fields, who has started every game at second base, is hitting .258 and is third on the team with five RBI. As a team, NU has hit seven triples which equals its total from a season ago.
