Northwestern University Athletics
Wildcats Host Michigan State in Final Baseball Weekend
5/19/2005 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 19, 2005
EVANSTON, Ill. -
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The Northwestern baseball team plays host to Michigan State in the final baseball weekend of 2005. The Wildcats will honor its departing senior class with one final rounding of the bases Sunday following the ballgame. Saturday, May 21 is Scout Day. It will be $1 admission for all scouts, leaders and their families. On Sunday, May 22 everyone can get in to the ballpark for just one dollar. Sunday is Fan Appreciation Day, a number of prizes will be given away throughout the game.
In the meantime, NU will look to even its record with four wins over the weekend. Northwestern enters the weekend with a 23-27 overall record and a 11-17 mark in the Big Ten. Michigan State comes to Rocky Miller Park with a 21-28 overall mark and 9-15 in the Big Ten. Michigan State and Purdue had an entire series lost because of weather earlier in the season.
The Spartans enter the weekend fresh off a 11-0 thrashing of Central Michigan on Tuesday. Last weekend in Big Ten action, MSU split a four-game series with Penn State. The Spartans lost game one, swept a Saturday doubleheader and lost the finale on Sunday. Penn State beat Northwestern three out of four in Evanston.
Offensively for the Spartans, Ryan Basham leads the way with a .358 batting average in 49 starts. He has a team-high seven home runs and has driven in 38. He is tied for the team lead with 11 doubles and has been walked 27 times. Ryan Sontag is a close second. He has a .345 batting average in 139 at-bats. He is second on the team with eight stolen bases. Troy Krider is MSU's top RBI man. He has driven in 39 in 49 starts, which includes a healthy .343 batting average. Adam Tripp also has seven home runs and leads the team with nine stolen bases.
On the mound for Michigan State, Craig Brookes is 6-1 with two complete games. He has pitched 56.0 innings. In those 56 innings, Brookes has struck out 35 and walked 18. Opponents are hitting .284 off the right-hander from Naperville, Ill. Right-hander Tim Day has posted 11 starts this season and has a 4-6 record. Reliever Jeff Gerbe has a team-low 2.70 ERA in 19 appearances. He has started one game, but is mainly used out of the pen and has pitched 33.1 innings this season. He is tied with Drew Mahan with a team-best two saves. Mahan has 23 appearances and a 3.42 ERA.
For Northwestern this weekend, junior Pat McMahon is chasing Northwestern history as he goes for the single-season hits record. Following a 1-for-3 performance Tuesday against Illinois State, McMahon needs just three hits to become Northwestern's single-season hits record holder. The single-season hits record is 81, set by Tom Hildebrand in 1985 and equaled in 2000 by Jeremy Kurella.
McMahon has a .411 batting average in 190 at-bats. The last Wildcat to hit .400 in a season was Mark Loretta in 1993. He hit .408 and was named Big Ten Player of the Year. Believe it or not, but he has hit above .400 single April 12. That is an unbelievable span of 25 games.
Shortstop Jon Mikrut needs nine at-bats this weekend to break the NU career at-bats record of 780 set by Tom Hildebrand from 1982-85. And, if he starts all four games this weekend, Mikrut will move into second place on the career games played list, behind? You guessed it, Tom Hildebrand (226).
