Series Preview: Northwestern Baseball Hosts St. Thomas
Northwestern (2-10) will play its first home games of the 2022 season on Sunday, welcoming the University of St. Thomas Tommies to Evanston for a doubleheader. The two-game series will be the first ever matchup between the two programs.
The Opponent
St. Thomas (2-8) is playing its first baseball season as a Division I member this spring, making an unprecedented jump from Division III last fall. With the promotion, UST became the second Division I school in the state of Minnesota, joining the Big Ten’s University of Minnesota. Last season, the Tommies went 37-10 and placed second in the NCAA Division III Baseball Tournament. In the last 25 years, the program won two national championships and 19 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference titles.
This year, St. Thomas has flourished on the mound but struggled at the plate. The pitching staff sports a 3.80 ERA and compiled 113 strikeouts in 87.2 innings through the team’s first ten games. However, UST batters are hitting .190 collectively without a home run. In the Tommies’ last game against Creighton on Mar. 6, four pitchers combined to strike out 23 Bluejays in a 15-inning marathon, but the offense left 18 runners on base, and St. Thomas lost 3-2.
Junior catcher Charlie Bartholomew leads the team in batting average, on base percentage and runs batted in, reaching base safely in eight of ten games. Left-handed pitcher Graham Laubscher, a second-team Division III All-American a season ago, has fanned 29 hitters in 17.1 innings on the mound.
The Schedule
Cold temperatures in Evanston forced the cancellation of Friday’s game and Saturday’s doubleheader between the two teams. Northwestern and St. Thomas will now play two games on Sunday.
Game 1: Sunday Mar. 13, 11 a.m. (seven-inning game)
Game 2: Sunday Mar. 13, 40 minutes after Game 1 (nine-inning game)
Projected Starting Pitchers
St Thomas:
LHP Graham Laubscher (Game 1): 0-2, 5.71 ERA, 17.1 IP, 29 K, 11 BB
RHP Walker Retz (Game 2): 1-1, 2.12 ERA, 17 IP, 24 K, 7 BB
Or
RHP Devon Schewe (Game 2): 0-0, 1.42 ERA, 12.2 IP, 20 K, 3 BB
Northwestern:
RHP Mike Doherty (Game 1): 0-2, 11.57 ERA, 14 IP, 9 K, 7 BB
LHP Sean Sullivan (Game 2): 1-0, 2.57 ERA, 14 IP, 22 K, 5 BB
How to Watch
‘Cats To Watch
Sophomore outfielder Ethan O’Donnell currently has a slash line of .317/.391/.952 and is tied for second in the Big Ten in doubles (7) 12 games into the season. The freshman All-Big Ten honoree had a big series against Santa Clara, going 8-16 with 3 doubles from Feb. 25 to Feb. 27.
On the mound for the Wildcats, Sean Sullivan currently sits in 8th place in the Big Ten in strikeouts at 22, despite having the fewest innings pitched among the top ten in the conference. In his last outing, Sullivan twirled 5 innings of 3 run ball while striking out 7 hitters and walking 1 against Cincinnati on Mar. 4.
Another player to keep an eye on is freshman outfielder Andrew Pinkston. The Smyrna, Georgia native is off to a good start on the year, hitting .364 in 8 games.
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