Struggling teams to clash in Illinois

Baseball coach Bob Morgan said his team won't get Easter baskets when it travels to Evanston, Ill., this weekend for a four-game series with Northwestern. Instead, he said he hopes the Hoosiers find presents elsewhere -- such as winning their first Big Ten series this season against the last-place Wildcats.\nThe four-game series opens at 3 p.m. Friday at Rocky Miller Park.\n"They have lots of good pitching. Hopefully, we'll go up there and turn things around," Morgan said.\nThe Hoosiers (17-17-1, 2-9 Big Ten) have lost seven of their last 10 games and haven't won more than one game in a weekend series against a Big Ten opponent this season. IU has lost twice to Penn State, three times to Minnesota and Michigan swept four games from them last weekend.\nWhile IU holds ninth place in the conference, Northwestern (12-20, 1-7 Big Ten) rests beneath the Hoosiers with the league's worst record. The Wildcats have lost to Ohio State, Illinois and Purdue. Northwestern dropped an 11-10 decision in 11 innings to Valparaiso Tuesday.\n"I think they're probably thinking the same thing we are: We got to get a couple games," junior shortstop Eric Blakeley said. "So, I think it'll be a hard-fought battle."\nThe series will also be a contest between pitching staffs that allow more than five earned runs per game. Wildcat pitchers have stumbled to a 5.64 ERA, while the Hoosiers' ERA idles at 5.65.\nThe Hoosiers are hitting .295, and Northwestern is hitting .271. Both teams' averages are near the bottom in the conference. Sophomore third baseman Nick Evans leads IU with a batting average of .373 in 27 games. Senior outfielder Blake St. Clair lingers behind at .372 in 36 games. St. Clair also leads the conference in RBIs with 39.\nAlthough four Hoosiers are hitting higher than .300, the team has had trouble producing runs in recent games. The Hoosiers averaged eight hits per game against Michigan last weekend and stranded several baserunners.\n"We've been getting a lot of hits, but the thing we're not doing offensively is we're not executing the runs," freshman outfielder Mark Calkins said. "We don't get runners over, or we're getting them over, but we're not bringing them in. Credit Michigan. They made the plays in tough situations this past weekend."\nBoth the Hoosiers and the Wildcats hover near the bottom of the Big Ten in team batting, pitching and fielding. The teams split last year's four-game series in Bloomington.\nSenior Nick Otte (5-2, 4.68 ERA) is the projected starter for game one. He has lost his last two Big Ten starts. Junior Brad Edwards (1-4, 7.35 ERA) will start the first game of Saturday's doubleheader, and sophomore Jacob Cary (0-1, 4.38 ERA) will pitch Saturday's nightcap. Junior Matt Rice, who is recovering from tendonitis, will close the series. He is 1-3 with 5.10 ERA.\n"We've been playing hard, but we just haven't gotten the results we've wanted," Evans said. "I think once we get a taste of victory, it's just going to snowball"