Northwestern University Athletics
Wildcats Trek East; Take on Penn State in Happy Valley
4/18/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 18, 2007
EVANSTON, Ill. - Northwestern enters this weekend's series at Penn State in last place of the Big Ten standings. There are five weeks left in the season and anything can happen. Head coach Paul Stevens is stressing the importance of finishing every game. That advice is pertinent because in NU's nine conference losses, three of them have been by one run and five of them by three runs or less.
Penn State enters this weekend 5-5 in the Big Ten after winning three of four at Michigan State last weekend. All four games were decided by three runs or less.
The Nittany Lions have one of the strongest pitching staff's in the league. Their 4.10 ERA in all games (30) and 3.36 in league games both rank third best in the conference. They are led by senior lefty Craig Clark who has a 2.89 ERA in eight starts. He is 1-4 on the season and has thrown 53.0 innings. Right-hander Scott Gaffney is 2-3 with a 4.75 ERA in seven starts. Righty Drew O'Neil is second in league games with three saves. He has five overall.
At the plate, Penn State is hitting .265 as a team with nine home runs, five triples and 46 doubles. The have stolen 26 bases and been caught seven times. Junior Joe Blackburn leads the team with a .333 batting average, 15 RBI and eight doubles. Junior catcher Robert Yodice leads the team with three home runs. Senior Matt Cavagnaro has scored a team-high 18 runs.
For Northwestern, junior Antonio Mule has recaptured the team lead in batting average and is hitting .364 (40-110). Mule has a team-high seven doubles and three home runs. He is second with 17 RBI. Third baseman Jake Owens is hitting .339 (41-121) with a team-high 20 RBI. Freshman first baseman Jake Goebbert has 16 RBI and six doubles.
On the mound for NU, senior Dan Schwartz leads the squad with a 3.74 ERA in seven starts. Classmate Ryan Myers is a close second at 3.92. Since the Big Ten season has started, freshman Cole Livermore has lowered his ERA from 9.33 to 5.70 in three conference starts. He has a team-low 2.96 Big Ten ERA and has pitched a team-high 24.2 innings in league play.
