Northwestern University Athletics
Wildcats Travel To Valparaiso on Tuesday
4/19/2004 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 19, 2004
EVANSTON, Ill. - After splitting a four-game conference series with Purdue over the weekend, Northwestern travels to Valparaiso, Ind., to take on Valparaiso University in a midweek contest. NU and Valpo are meeting for the second time this season with NU winning the first matchup, 13-7. NU is 15-16-1 overall, while Valpo is 9-20, winning five of its last seven contests.
When these two teams met on April 6 in Evanston, shortstop Jon Mikrut was 4-for-5 with five RBI and pitched a perfect ninth inning, striking out two Crusaders. It was his second five-RBI game of the season, the first coming against Vermont on March 20. Mikrut leads the team with 27 RBI and a .333 batting average. Sophomore Mark Ori is second on the team with a .318 average, which has gone up 38 points since the first time NU and Valpo played. Ori was 2-for-5 with two RBI and two runs scored in that game.
Sophomore Anthony Wycklendt also had a good game, going 3-for-5 with two RBI and two runs scored. Wycklendt hit one of his five home runs in the game. Center fielder Matt Brimmer made the most of his only at-bat in the game, hitting a first inning inside-the-park home run.
Northwestern used seven pitchers in the first contest with senior Dan Konecny starting and earning the win. Konecny pitched the first three innings, striking out seven of the nine outs he recorded. Of the next six pitchers, none threw more than one and one-third innings. Mikrut, Ryan Myers, Julio Siberio and Dan Pohlman combined to pitch four and one-third innings, allowing only three hits. Evan Blesoff and Chris Hayes also pitched in the game.
NU is schedule to leave Evanston at Noon (CDT) on Tuesday.
Following Tuesday's tilt with Valpo, NU hosts the University of Minnesota at Rocky Miller park in Evanston. The two teams are scheduled to play four games with game one taking place at 3 p.m. (CDT) Friday afternoon.
