April 27, 2001
EVANSTON, Ill. - The Northwestern baseball team defeated the Iowa Hawkeyes, 13-2, in the first game of a four-game conference series played at Rocky Miller Park. NU used a season-high 19-hits to score a season-high 13 runs. The top five hitters in the WIldcat lineup slaughtered Iowa pitching, hitting safely in 12 of their 24 at-bats. Eight of those 12 hits went for extra bases, including home runs by leadoff man Steve Haake (Belleville, Ill./Gibault) and left fielder David Gresky (North Royalton, Ohio/St. Ignatius). Haake hit his roundtripper in NU's first at-bat of the game.
Junior Zach Schara (Madison, Wis./West) took control of the game after a shaky first inning. He threw eight complete innings giving up two runs (none earned) and scattered five hits. He struck out eight in the game. Schara leads the team in innings pitched, totaling 85.2 in his 12 starts. He also leads the team in strikeouts, setting down 74 batters this season.
NU broke the game open in the seventh inning as the `Cats batted around the order, hitting for the cycle. In one of the most impressive at-bats of the season, Gresky led the inning off with a solo shot over the right field scoreboard fouling off six pitches with a full count before hitting the long ball. Three singles, two doubles and a triple later, NU had taken a commanding 11-2 lead. They added two more in the eighth, making the final score 13-2.
Senior J.J. Standring (Chicago, Ill./St. Rita) threw a perfect ninth-inning in his eighth appearance of the season.
Offensively for NU, Haake was 2-for-5 extending his hitting streak to 10 games while second baseman Eric Roeder (Onsted, Mich./Onsted) was 3-for-6 with two RBI and two runs scored. Designated hitter Todd Morgan was 3-for-5 with an RBI triple, his second three-bagger of the season and catcher Joe Hietpas (Appleton, Wis./North) was 3-for-5 with his own RBI triple. It is the second consecutive game Hietpas has hit a triple. Right fielder Jason Krynski (Niles, Ill./Niles West) was 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored while Matt Thompson (Libertyville, Ill./Libertyville) was 1-for-1, scoring a run. Shortstop Josh Lieberman (Mundelein, Ill./Mundelein) was 2-for-4, recording two put-outs and three assists in the field.