| NORTHWESTERN BASEBALL: GAME-DAY INFO | ||||||
| DATE | OPPONENT | TIME | LOCATION | RADIO STREAM | LIVE STATS | |
| Friday, Feb. 15 | BYU | 7 p.m. CT | Sloan Park | WNUR | NUsports.com | |
| Saturday, Feb. 16 | BYU | 2 p.m CT | Sloan Park | WNUR | NUsports.com | |
| Saturday, Feb. 16 | BYU | 5:30 p.m. CT | Sloan Park | WNUR | NUsports.com | |
| Sunday, Feb. 17 | Cal | 12 p.m. CT | Tempe Diablo Stadium Complex | WNUR | n/a | |
| Social: Twitter (@NUCatsBaseball) | Instagram (nucatsbaseball) | Facebook Game Notes: Northwestern | Brigham Young | Cal |
||||||
EVANSTON, Ill. – Northwestern is set to begin its 2019 season with a three-game set against BYU (Feb. 15-16) and one game against Cal (Feb. 17). The BYU contests will be held at Sloan Park, while the Cal game will be at the Tempe Diablo Stadium Complex. Tickets for the Sloan Park games are available here, while the Tempe Diablo game has free admittance.
PROBABLE STARTERS
Friday, Feb. 15
BYU: RHP Jordan Wood (0-0, -.-- ERA)
Northwestern: RHP Hank Christie (0-0, -.-- ERA)
Saturday, Feb. 16 (G1)
BYU: RHP Justin Sterner (0-0, -.-- ERA)
Northwestern: LHP Sam Lawrence (0-0, -.-- ERA)
Saturday, Feb. 16 (G2)
BYU: RHP Drew Zimmerman (0-0, -.-- ERA)
Northwestern: LHP Ryan Bader (0-0, -.-- ERA)
Sunday, Feb. 17
Cal: TBD
Northwestern: LHP Quinn Lavelle (0-0, -.-- ERA)
News and notes...
144 AND COUNTING: Northwestern is beginning its 144th season of intercollegiate competition with a three-game series against Brigham Young and a game against California.
A BIT ABOUT THE SKIP: Spencer Allen is in his fourth season as the head coach of the Northwestern baseball team ... He was named the 26th head baseball coach in NU history on June 14, 2015 ... In 2017, Allen led the Wildcats to its first appearance in the Big Ten Tournament since 2010 and a run to the Big Ten Tournament Championship game for the first time since 1984.
DOING SOME RECON: After back-to-back seasons finishing in first place in the West Coast Conference, BYU finished in 10th place last season with an 11-16 mark in-conference ... The Cougars return their best hitter from last year, Brock Hale, who hit .342 with eight home runs and 31 RBI.
Cal is led by second-year head coach Mike Neu, who pitched in the majors for the Oakland Athletics and the Florida Marlins ... After hitting .402 and posting a 1.350 OPS in 54 games en route to the Golden Spikes Award in 2018, Andrew Vaughn is set again to be a major contributor for the Golden Bears.
NOT DUNN YET: Senior infielder Jack Dunn has started every game since coming to Evanston, a 160-game streak entering the season ... Dunn hit a career-best .314 last season while stealing a career-high 21 bases while only getting caught three times.
MR. 305: Junior infielder Alex Erro hit .296 last year and, in 196 at-bats, only struck out 21 times ... That is 10.7 percent of the time ... In his career, he's only struck out 39 times in 429 at-bats (9.1 percent).
ADDED PRODUCTION: Northwestern added seven rookies to their roster, highlighted by catcher/outfielder Michael Trautwein, the son of Northwestern alumni and former relief pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, John Trautwein ... NU will also welcome back David Dunn, who played in 10 games last season, batting .324 with a .939 OPS, before suffering a season-ending injury and received a redshirt ... David is the younger brother of Wildcat stalwart, Jack.
LIMITING THE HITS, BIG AND SMALL: Sophomore left-handed pitcher Jack Pagliarini led the Wildcats last season with a 6.85 hits per nine innings rate last year ... He started eight games and compiled a 3.99 ERA ... He also allowed only two home runs all season, finishing with a 0.38 HR/9 rate, one of the best on the squad ... The Ohio native seeks to be a solid part of the Wildcat rotation for his second-straight year.
NATIONAL RECOGNITION: D1Baseball.com picked three 'Cats in their 2019 Draft Big Ten top prospects list — infielders Jack Dunn (No. 25) & Alex Erro (No. 31) plus right-handed pitcher Nick Paciorek (No. 37) ... Outfielder David Dunn is No. 14 on the 2020 list.
ROAD WARRIORS: The 'Cats are on the road for the first 10 games of the season and for 16 of the first 17 games of the season.
CHECK IT OUT, ROOK: D1Baseball.com listed a pair of Wildcats on their Big Ten "Impact Freshman" list — catcher/outfielder Michael Trautwein (No. 17) and infielder Shawn Goosenberg (No. 31).
GOING STREAKING: Senior infielder Jack Dunn has reached base safely in 26-consecutive games, dating back to April 7, 2018 vs. Michigan ... Junior infielder Alex Erro is on a 14-game hitting streak, dating to April 28, 2018 at Penn State ... His career-longest hitting skein was a 16-game stretch between Feburary 24, 2017 and March 21, 2017.
YOUTH MOVEMENT: Last year, six underclassmen position players made 15 or more starts, while 45-of-49 games started by pitchers were made by underclassmen ... Overall, the Wildcats return 22 letterwinners.
HOMEGROWN: Of the Wildcats' 30-man roster, one third hail from Illinois ... The next-largest state contingent is Georgia, of which four Wildcats call home.
AFTER THIS: Northwestern will head to Durham, N.C., to battle Duke for a weekend series on Feb. 22-24 ... After that, NU will take to Atlanta, Georgia, to take on Georgia Tech.