Northwestern Hosts Iowa as Big Ten Play Continues

4/6/2017 12:47:00 PM | Baseball

NORTHWESTERN vs. IOWA
DATE	OPPONENT	TIME	LOCATION	STREAM	RADIO
Friday, April 7	Iowa	3:30 p.m. CT	Miller Park	Watch	WNUR
Saturday, April 8	Iowa	2:00 p.m. CT	Miller Park	Watch	WNUR
Sunday, April 9	Iowa	1:00 p.m. CT	Miller Park	Watch	WNUR
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EVANSTON, Ill. — Northwestern will return to Big Ten play this weekend when it welcomes Iowa to Miller Park for a three-game series beginning on Friday, April 7 at 3:30 p.m. CT.

The Wildcats and Hawkeyes will play on Saturday, April 8, at 2 p.m., before the series finale takes place on Sunday, April 9, at 1 p.m.

Northwestern (8-19, 0-3 B1G) dropped a mid-week contest last time out on April 4 at UIC, 3-0. The Wildcats' pitching staff kept Northwestern in Tuesday's game against the Flames. Senior Josh Davis tossed 4.0 innings, striking out three while allowing two runs on four hits. Cooper Wetherbee accounted for three-scoreless innings and Danny Katz worked a three-up, three-down ninth. Willie Bourbon and Jack Dunn recorded Northwestern's only hits of the contest.

Head coach Spencer Allen decided to go with the same rotation from last weekend's series win over Air Force. Junior Tommy Bordignon (0-2, 9.95 ERA) will make his fifth start of the season on Friday before making way for a pair of freshmen in Hank Christie (1-4, 5.79 ERA) and Matt Gannon (0-2, 4.22 ERA) to start on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

Iowa (18-9, 2-1 B1G) rolls into Miller Park this weekend on a seven-game winning streak. The Hawkeyes took a pair from Purdue (March 25-26) before sweeping UNLV (March 31 – April 1) last weekend and picking up single-game wins over Grand View (March 28) and South Dakota State (April 4). As a team, Iowa ranks third in the Big Ten with a .282 batting average and seventh among conference members with a 4.15 ERA.

Three Hawkeyes rank in the top-10 in the conference for individual batting. Robert Neustrom ranks second in the league with 41 hits and third with a .282 batting average, while teammates Ben Norman (.344) and Jake Adams (.340) have the eighth and 10^th best averages.

Northwestern is set to face RHP Nick Gallagher (3-1, 2.54 ERA) in game one of the series, before battling LHP Ryan Erickson (0-1, 3.00 ERA) and RHP Cole McDonald (2-2, 4.66 ERA) on the weekend. Josh Martsching leads the club with three saves on the season.

The Wildcats and Hawkeyes last met in the 2015 season with Iowa taking the series, 2-1, in Iowa City. Northwestern's lone win of the series came when Reed Mason tossed 7.1 innings, only allowing one run as the Wildcats went on to beat the then-No. 14 Hawkeyes, 4-1, on April 18, 2015. This weekend's series will be the first time since the 2014 season that the Hawkeyes have visited Miller Park.