April 9, 2002
EVANSTON, Ill. - The name of the game was pitching, at least for Northwestern. It was a group effort as five Wildcat pitchers combined to face just 31 batters, four over the minimum in a nine-inning contest. The five hurlers struck out eight Valparaiso Crusaders, walked three and allowed just one hit, a ninth inning bloop single to right, with two outs.
Sophomore right-hander Dan Pohlman (Barrington, Ill./Barrington) started his second game of the season, throwing the first two innings. The coaching staff designated before the first pitch that numerous pitchers would get work on the mound in the game. One of those being senior right-hander Zach Schara (Madison, Wis./West). In his first action since breaking his hand on March 16, Schara threw two innings of hitless baseball. The Wisconsin native struck out two, bringing him 26 shy of NU's strikeout record held by Grady Hall (1983-86) with 273.
Up next were the freshmen. Stanley Finch (Lubbock, Texas/Cooper) and Evan Blesoff (Oak Park, Ill./Oak Park River Forest) combined to throw three innings, striking out one. In Blesoff's one inning of work, he threw just seven pitches in a three-up three-down inning. Sandwiching the freshman between seniors, head coach Paul Stevens called on ace Gabe Ribas (Brunswick, Maine/Brunswick) to throw the eighth. Ribas faced three hitters, striking out two, giving him 37 K's on the year.
Stevens called on one of his young guns to close things out, bringing James Happ (Peru, Ill./St. Bede Academy) out of the bullpen for the ninth inning. Happ, currently on a 17 scoreless innings streak, struck out one and fell victim to the lone Valpo hit just one out away from the no-hitter.
Offensively, NU jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead when David Gresky's (North Royalton, Ohio/St. Ignatius) sacrifice fly to center scored Eric Roeder (Onsted, Mich./Onsted) from third. Roeder reached on a free pass and advanced to third on Brandon Ackley's (Carmel, Ind./Carmel) single to right.
The 'Cats came right back in the second scoring three runs on three hits. The big blow came on Steve Haake's (Belleville, Ill./Gibault) third triple of the season, scoring shortstop Jon Mikrut (Wauconda, Ill./Carmel) and first baseman Jason Krynski (Niles, Ill./Niles West). Both Mikrut and Krynski reached on walks. Haake crossed the plate on Roeder's bunt single to third.
Roeder came around to score again in the fourth after reaching on his second single of the game. After stealing second, his sixth of the season, Roeder scored on a Pohlman single to left.
In all, the 'Cats had 10 hits, led by Roeder, Ackley and Ken Padgett (Littleton, Colo./Arapahoe) with two apiece. All five Wildcat runs were RBI, Haake leading the way with two.
Northwestern is next in action when they travel to West Lafayette, Ind., to take on the Purdue Boilermakers in a four-game series, beginning Friday at 3 p.m.