Northwestern baseball to face Indiana in Big Ten opener
Northwestern baseball will open Big Ten Conference play in Bloomington, Ind. on Friday with a three-game series against the Indiana University Hoosiers. After a 2-10 start, the Wildcats have since won seven of eight games, including taking three games of a four-game, three-way series against SIU and Butler last weekend. The Wildcats went 15-21 in Big Ten action last season and finished 10th in the conference.
The Opponent
Indiana (10-13) enters the series with Northwestern on a two-game win streak, beating Evansville twice last weekend to secure a series victory. The Hoosiers, who finished 4th in the Big Ten a season ago with a 26-18 record, were predicted to finish 6th in the conference’s 2022 Preseason Coaches Poll.
IU has played its best baseball at home this year, compiling a 7-4 record in Bloomington while posting a 3-9 mark on the road. The Hoosiers competed in the Karbach Round Rock Classic in February, falling to perennial powerhouses Arkansas and Stanford and beating Louisiana-Lafayette. The Wildcats and Hoosiers have faced two common opponents: IU won against Cincinnati, who bested NU in a weekend series, and both Indiana and Northwestern own series wins over Evansville.
On offense, Bobby Whalen leads Indiana in hits (31), batting average (.348), on-base percentage (.438) and steals (13). Redshirt junior catcher Matthew Ellis has hit 11 home runs this season, which ranks 6th in NCAA Division I.
Indiana’s pitching staff ranks last in the Big Ten Conference in earned run average (6.70) and has issued the most walks in the conference this year. Jack Perkins has emerged as IU’s Friday starter with 39 strikeouts in 30 innings this season. Right-hander Bradley Brehmer won the Big Ten Pitcher of the Week award with his six-inning, one-hit performance against Evansville last weekend. Oak Park, Ill. native Grant Holderfield is the team leader in saves (2) and has appeared in 10 games out of the bullpen.
Last year, Indiana won two of three games at Rocky and Berenice Miller Park in Evanston, improving its all-time record against Northwestern to 114-74-3.
Coach’s Corner
Wildcats Daily spoke with Northwestern baseball interim head coach Josh Reynolds this week to get his thoughts on the upcoming series and his team’s recent hot streak:
“They’re a good team, and they have good arms. I don’t know if they’ve played the best baseball that they’ve wanted to play this year…but they have a solid team,” Reynolds said about the series with Indiana this weekend.
“We came there to win a series, and we accomplished that,” Reynolds said on the team’s 3-1 weekend in Carbondale, Ill. last week. “We were right there (to get a sweep), but when you give up nine runs in the second and third innings, you put yourself at a disadvantage.”
“We challenged the guys to play their brand of baseball, the brand that we need to play, and I think we’ve seen that here lately, with guys competing in the box, two-strike hits, two-out hits, setting up the home run and not just trying to swing for the home run.” Reynolds said when asked about Northwestern’s turnaround after a slow start. “We’ve played solid defense, the guys have pitched it pretty well, and the offense has been competing in the box.”
The Schedule
The three-game series will begin on Friday night, with single games scheduled through the weekend:
Game 1: Friday, April 1, 5 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. CT
Game 2: Saturday, April 2, 2 p.m. ET / 1 p.m. CT
Game 3: Sunday, April 3, 1 p.m. ET / 12 p.m. CT
Projected Starting Pitchers
Game 1:
Northwestern – LHP Sean Sullivan: 6 GS, 31 IP, 2.61 ERA, 43 SO, 8 BB
Indiana – RHP Jack Perkins: 6 GS, 30 IP, 4.20 ERA, 39 SO, 19 BB
Game 2:
Northwestern – RHP Michael Farinelli: 5 GS (6 APP), 33.1 IP, 4.32 ERA, 30 SO, 13 BB
Indiana – RHP Bradley Bremer: 4 GS (7 APP), 26.2 IP, 5.74 ERA, 22 SO, 14 BB
Game 3:
Northwestern – TBD
Indiana – TBD
How to Watch
Multiple ‘Cats Earn Honors
Northwestern’s Ethan O’Donnell and Jay Beshears were named National Players of the Week by the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper. O’Donnell hit four home runs and slugged 1.895 in four games against SIU and Butler last week, and Beshears collected 13 RBI and four homers of his own.
The Big Ten Conference honored O’Donnell as the conference’s Player of the Week. The sophomore became the first Wildcat to win the award since Shawn Goosenberg in April of 2021.
D1Baseball.com also placed O’Donnell on its Top 100 Outfielders list, slotting the Highlands Ranch, Colo. native at #71.
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