Northwestern University Athletics
Wildcats Open 2008 Season at Cal State Northridge
2/21/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Feb. 21, 2008
NU Game Notes vs. Cal State Northridge 
EVANSTON, Ill. -
Northwestern opens its 2008 season this weekend as it travels to Northridge, Calif., to face Cal State Northridge. A live audio webcast will be available at the CSUN website GoMatadors.com while live stats can be accessed via NUsports.com.
Friday's opening game of the series begins at 4 p.m. Central time. Saturday's contest starts at 3 p.m., while Sunday's finale gets underway at 2 p.m.
The Matadors lead the all-time series with the Wildcats 4-2. The last time the teams met, CSUN took two of three games from Northwestern March 5-6, 2005 in Northridge. Cal State Northridge posted wins of 16-0 and 11-8 sandwiched around a 9-5 victory by the 'Cats.
NU won its season opener a year ago, posting a
12-7 victory at Texas Tech. Aaron Newman had four hits for the Wildcats in the winning effort.
Northwestern is returning seven position starters from last year's team which went 18-36 overall and 9-23 in the Big Ten (9th). Senior second baseman Jake Owens is back for NU after hitting a team-leading .385 a year ago on his way to earning second-team All-Big Ten honors. Sophomore first baseman Jake Goebbert posted a .335 batting average during his freshman season while pacing the squad with 14 doubles.
The 'Cats have six pitchers back in the mix this season, though only sophomore Joe Muraski was a regular starter. Sophomore Cole Livermore, who started a team-high 12 games in 2007, is expected to be sidelined for the season due to injury. Freshman Eric Jokisch, a 39th-round draft pick of the Cleveland Indians, and sophomore David Jensen, who made a team-leading 22 appearances a year ago, are also slated for starts this weekend.
This weekend's opening series begins a stretch during which the Wildcats will play their first 22 games of the season away from home. Coming up next weekend will be a trip to Tampa, Fla., where Northwestern will play two games against Oklahoma State and one against host South Florida.
