Northwestern University Athletics
Wildcats Travel To Purdue Seeking Big Ten Championship
5/18/2006 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 18, 2006
EVANSTON, Ill. -
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The Game
This is it. This is what it is all about. The Big Ten regular-season championship comes down the final weekend of the season. Just four games left to find out if Northwestern can win its first Big Ten baseball championship since 1957.
The Wildcats enter the weekend in a first-place tie with Michigan (34-18, 19-9 Big Ten). The Wildcats need to mimic the results of the Michigan/Iowa series if they hope to win NU's third Big Ten title in school history. Northwestern owns the tiebreaker over the Wolverines after winning three-of-four games in Ann Arbor to start the Big Ten season.
Basically, just keep doing what they have done all conference season long. NU has had sole possession or at least a share of the Big Ten lead in every week of the conference season.
Winners of five of its last seven games, including an 11-5 Tuesday win at Illinois State, NU travels to West Lafayette, Ind., to take on fifth-place Purdue (28-23, 13-15). Purdue went 2-2 against Iowa last weekend before splitting a pair of games against Western Michigan during the week.
The Wildcats are led on the mound by this week's Louisville Slugger National Player of the Week Dan Brauer. Brauer is coming off his first collegiate no-hitter in a 7-0 win over Michigan State. He leads the league with 83 strikeouts in 77.2 innings pitched.
Offensively for the Wildcats, sophomore Jake Owens is 12-for-16 in his last four games and has raised his average nearly 40 points.
PROJECTED STARTERS
C Geoff Dietz (.293, 5 2B, 15 RBI, Jr.)
1B Pat McMahon (.346, 29 Runs, 13 2B, 5 HR Sr.)
2B Jake Owens (.324, 43 Runs, 11 2B, HR, So.)
3B Caleb Fields (.321, 29 Runs, 5 HR, Jr.)
SS Tommy Finn (.232, 16 RBI, Fr.)
LF Anthony Wycklendt (.240, 8 2B, 7 HR, Sr.)
CF Aaron Newman (.290, 28 Runs, HR, So.) OR
-OR- Max Mann (.204, 3 HR, So.)
RF Antonio Mulé (.346, 9 HR, 43 RBI, So.)
-OR- Max Mann (.204, 3 HR, So.)
DH Antonio Mulé (.346, 9 HR, 43 RBI, So.)
-OR- Max Mann (.204, 3 HR, So.)
BIG TEN STANDINGS
Big Ten Overall Teams W L T Pct. W L T Pct. Northwestern 19 9 0 .679 23 29 0 .442 Michigan 19 9 0 .679 34 18 0 .654 Ohio State 16 11 0 .593 32 18 0 .640 Minnesota 13 14 0 .481 26 24 0 .520 Purdue 13 15 0 .464 28 23 0 .549 Illinois 13 15 0 .464 27 25 0 .519 Iowa 12 16 0 .429 23 29 0 .442 Penn State 12 16 0 .429 19 33 0 .365 Michigan State 11 17 0 .393 24 28 0 .462 Indiana 11 17 0 .393 22 30 0 .423
NOTES
The Series With....
Purdue: Purdue leads 96-72-2
The Last Time: The two teams split a four-game series in West Lafayette last season.
Most Big Ten Wins Ever
With 19 Big Ten wins, the 2006 Northwestern baseball team has the winningest conference team in school history. The previous mark was 15 games set on five different occasions, the most recent in 2003. The 19 wins also guarantees the Wildcats at least a third-place finish in the final regular season standings. No team at NU has finished above third since a second-place finish in 1984. The Wildcats have two (1991 & `95) third-place finishes in the Paul Stevens era.
Not Since 1957
Northwestern's baseball team has not won a Big Ten Championship since 1957 when they ended that season with a 5-2 Big Ten record. It is NU's lone out-right title and just the second in school history. The first came in 1940 when the Wildcats tied Illinois for the conference championship with a 9-3 record.
The Magic Number is 2
Any combination of Wildcat wins and Ohio State losses that equals two guarantees Northwestern a first-round bye in next week's Big Ten Tournament.
Winning Series
Northwestern has won five of the seven Big Ten series it has played so far this season. The Wildcats have enjoyed series wins (3 wins, 1 loss) against Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and Michigan State. NU has not lost a series yet this season. They split at Iowa and at home vs. Minnesota.
The 500 Club
Head coach Paul Stevens needs three wins to enter the 500-wins club as Northwestern's head baseball coach. As the skipper since 1988, Stevens has coached 1,042 games. The Wildcats' first game at Kentucky on March 3 of this season was Stevens' 1,000. That's 341 more games than the next highest Wildcat coach, George McKinnon. McKinnon coached 701 games from 1962-81. McKinnon is also second to Stevens in career wins with 304. Stevens topped McKinnon's mark back on April 11, 1999 with a 9-6 win over Illinois.
Big Ten (National) Pitcher of the Week(s)
Junior Dan Brauer earns the Big Ten weekly accolade after having already earned Louisville Slugger National Player of the Week honors from Collegiate Baseball on Monday. The junior highlighted his week against Michigan State with the Wildcats' first no-hitter since 1999 in a 7-0 win over the Spartans--a team that entered the series second in the league in hitting. Brauer allowed only two runners to reach base, one of which struck out but made it safely to first on a passed ball by the catcher. He fanned eight and walked one to extend his scoreless inning streak to 14 innings (two complete game shutouts). He threw 99 pitches (69 strikes) in his sixth complete game of the season and lowered his conference ERA to 2.17. He also leads the Big Ten (all games) with 85 strikeouts in 77.2 innings pitched.
One-Run Warriors
So far this season, NU has played 19 one-run games. In those 19 games, the Wildcats are 12-7. Twelve of those 19 games have come during the Big Ten season where NU has an impressive 10-2 record.
Bean Ball
Sophomore Aaron Newman has already been hit by a lot of pitches in his young career. As a matter of fact, Newman has been hit 13 times this season, which ties the NU single-season record for being hit by pitches. Couple that with the 11 he amassed last season and he is already tied for fifth on the all-time hit-by-pitch list with 24. Former Wildcat catcher Ken Padgett owns the all-time record with 33.
Ding Dong
Through 28 Big Ten games, Northwestern is first in home runs hit with 25. Purdue is second with 19. Outfielder Anthony Wycklendt leads the league with six round-trippers, while Antonio Mulé and Caleb Fields are second with five homers each. Mulé has nine total home runs, while Wycklendt has seven. First baseman Pat McMahon has three league long balls and five total.
Hit Parade
In its last two games, Northwestern's baseball team has totaled 23 runs on 34 hits, both wins. Included in those 34 hits are seven doubles and four home runs. In the last seven games, the Wildcat offense has averaged 7.4 runs (52 total) on 11.9 hits (83) per game. NU is 5-2 in those games.
The Siberio Scenario
Senior right-hander Julio Siberio did it again last week against Michigan State. In Monday's series finale, Siberio pitched the final five innings of a 12-2 win in a crucial game to keep the Wildcats atop the Big Ten standings. Junior Andrew Smith started on the mound--because Siberio had thrown the final two innings for his fourth Big Ten save in game one of the series. After Smith loaded the bases in the top of the fifth inning, Siberio induced a double-play comebacker and another groundout to second base to end the inning. From there it was smooth sailing. He gave up one hit, a solo home run, but struck out four and walked none to earn the win. In seven innings pitched, Siberio was 1-0 with a save and a 1.29 ERA. It was the second Big Ten weekend--the first at Iowa--he had recorded a win and a save. Siberio is currently 4-2 with four saves and a 3.13 ERA in 11 conferences appearances (46.0 innings).
Atop the Ten
Through seven weeks (28 games) of the Big Ten conference season, Northwestern and Michigan share the top spot with identical 19-9 records. NU travels to fifth-place Purdue, while Michigan hosts seventh-place Iowa. Third-place Ohio State hosts Penn State in Columbus.
Capital K
In 77.2 innings pitched, junior Dan Brauer is atop the Big Ten standings with 83 Ks. Penn State's Craig Clark is second with 75 strikeouts in 88.0 innings pitched. Brauer is first in conference games only with 49 punch-outs in 45.2 innings. Clark is second with 43 Ks in 50.1 innings pitched.
Longevity
Head coach Paul Stevens and his entire staff have been together for 11 years. Stevens is working on his 19th season as the skipper, while pitching coach Tim Stoddard is in his 13th season. Ron Klein enters his 11th season, while volunteer coach Joe Keenan enters his 19th.
Hit Record (set in 2005)
Senior Pat McMahon set NU's single-season hit mark with 82 hits in 2005. He broke the record of Tom Hildebrand (81, 1985) and Jeremy Kurella (81, 2000) on the final day of the season with a 2-for-4 performance against Michigan State. His two hits also gave him a .400 batting average (82-for-205). McMahon is the first Wildcat player to hit .400 or better since Mark Loretta (.408, 75-184) in 1993.
