[NU Sports] NU Baseball projected...

[Roy Lamberton]

NU, presently tied with Michigan on top of the Big 10 has two series left

Michigan State [23-24/10-14] at home this weekend and Purdue [25-20/11-13]  on
the road the next, followed by the Big 10 Tournament.

The Cats games this weekend will have the added distraction of the Big 10
Softball tourney, but hopefully the actions of the ladies will help buoy the
guys too.

As with almost everything in Baseball [and Softball], it probably comes down to
pitching and defense -- NU has had some outstanding performances on the mound
this year, and you hope that continues.

BUT - Overall, NU is 11th in Team Batting [.275], Pitching 19-27 5.97 ERA, and
Fielding [.949]. However in conference games, the ones that count right now, the
Cats are 4th in Batting [.299], 6th in pitching [5.47 ERA] but dead last in
fielding [.951]

Dan Brauer is NU's Ace right now, 5-1 in conference with a 2.69 ERA [2.56 in
conf]. NU Team 5.47 pitching suggests that the Cats have to score lots of runs
to win, but there are several NU pitchers with ERAs over 7.00 who have winning
records. 

Pat McMahon [.379], Caleb Fields [.345] and Antonio Mule [.317] are the leading
hitters, the team has a .299 BA in conference right now. The Big 10 doesn't have
a stat page with the last 10 games - something that would tell me a little more
about how a team is playing.

NU's poor 19-28 record overall is because of a disastrous West coast swing in
late March where they lost 12 in a row to Santa Clara, Loyola Marymount and
Pepperdine. However the Cats broke that losing streak against Michigan, where
they took 3 of 4, and now hold the tiebreaker over the Wolverines.

In any case, the Cats probably need to win 3 of 4 from both MSU and Purdue to
ensure a top seed in the Big 10 Tournament. Then the challenge is to not run out
of pitching, which the Cast apparently did yesterday at UIC.

So there you have it. I think NU will have to win the Big 10 to get any kind of
placement in the NCAAs. A couple of sweeps will get us close to .500 on the year
- we have to win out to enter the tournament at .500 [28-28].

In college baseball, that's hard to do, but then so is losing 12 straight...

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Roy S. Lamberton - Senior Associate
Computer Applications & Support Associates
and Publisher of Purple Reign, 
The Scout.com Northwestern University Site
(http://www.purplewildcats.com)
AIM Handle: CoachRoy74
======== Go Cats -  Beat 'em All ===========
Every time I think I've got this Computer 
Biz handled 
            -- There's another upgrade.
============================================

> -----Original Message-----
> From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com 
> [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com] On Behalf Of Herman Wang
> Sent: Tuesday, May 09, 2006 9:21 PM
> To: nwu-sports at tssi.com
> Subject: Re: [NU Sports] NU Baseball projected...
> 
> 
> Baseball America lists Ohio State and Michigan as its two 
> BigTen bids, for 
> what it's worth.
> 
>