Northwestern University Athletics
Wildcats and Redbirds Square Off at Rocky Miller Park Wednesday
4/20/2010 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 20, 2010
Northwestern (12-22, 5-4 Big Ten) vs. Illinois State (18-15, 8-1 MVC)
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Rocky Miller Park (1,000)
Evanston, Ill. • 3 p.m.
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Probable Pitching Matchup
RHP Luke Farrell vs. RHP Ryan Camp
EVANSTON, Ill. - Northwestern welcomes Illinois State to Rocky Miller Park Wednesday afternoon for the Wildcats' penultimate nonconference home game of the season. First pitch is set for 3 p.m.
NU enters the contest as winners of five of its last seven contests. The Wildcats are coming off their second consecutive win of a Big Ten series as they won two of three home games against Minnesota last weekend. After dropping a tight opening game of the series 8-7 on Friday, Northwestern returned the favor with a 6-5 victory on Saturday. The Wildcats then pulled away late behind home runs from Chris Lashmet and Trevor Stevens to take Sunday's finale, 8-3.
Northwestern's recent success has been spurred by its offense. Over the team's last nine contests, it has recorded double-digit hits in eight of them. The Wildcats pounded out 46 hits in their three games against Minnesota, including tying a season high with 19 in the series finale.
The output has boosted NU's team season batting average to .304, a 22-point jump since April 2. In Big Ten play, Northwestern's team average goes up to .340 with eight of the regular starters batting higher than that mark. The squad had recorded at least 10 hits in 19 games this season, already matching last year's total.
The pitching staff has also done its part, lowing the team ERA from 6.55 follow a loss to Ohio State April 4 down to its current mark of 5.98.
Meanwhile, Illinois State also comes into Wednesday's contest on a roll. The Redbirds enter Tuesday's game at Illinois having won six of their last seven. All the wins have coming Missouri Valley Conference play where ISU sports an 8-1 record.
Sophomore infielder Kevin Tokarski paces Illinois State with an impressive .465 batting average and a whopping 20 doubles to go along with five home runs, 29 RBI and a .807 slugging percentage. Anthony Ruffolo is first on the team with 33 driven in and is tied for the team lead with six homers.
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