March 12, 2008
EVANSTON, Ill. -
Northwestern plays its first games of the season in the Chicagoland area this week as it heads across town to face UIC. The teams will open the series at 3 p.m. Thursday at Les Miller Field.
It will be the first game played on the Flames' new FieldTurf surface. The teams are presently scheduled to play single games at 3 p.m. Friday and 1 p.m. Saturday, though the slate for the remainder of the series may be adjusted following Thursday's contest based on the weather forecast.
Gametracker for each of the contests will be available at NUsports.com, while live audio can be accessed via uicflames.com.
The Wildcats were scheduled to play a three-game set at Louisville last weekend, but had the entire slate wiped out due to poor weather.
Behind a red-hot offense, the Wildcats have posted a 3-3 record through their first six contests. NU has scored at least eight runs in four of its six games and is atop the Big Ten with a team batting average of .350.
Senior outfielder Mike Kalina leads the Wildcats with Big Ten-leading marks in batting average (.593), slugging percentage (.889) and on-base percentage (.621).
Northwestern leads the all-time series with the Flames 59-16-1. The Wildcats won the most recent meeting 6-2 on May 8 of last year in Evanston. Four NU players had two hits apiece, including Max Mann who had two doubles.
The Flames were the Horizon League champions last season and advanced to an NCAA regional in Long Beach, Calif. UIC was 35-21 a year ago, including an impressive 20-4 home record. The Flames are 3-6 so far this season.
UIC pitching coach Mike Nall is a 2001 Northwestern graduate and was a 28th-round draft pick of the Philadelphia Phillies.