IU hosts Northwestern for 4-game Big Ten series

It looked as if the IU baseball team was on a roll.\nAfter winning seven games in a row – the longest winning streak under head coach Tracy Smith – the Hoosiers suffered a setback last weekend in its Big Ten opener against Michigan State. \nIU managed to squeak out a late 2-1 win in the first of four games against the Spartans \nbut then dropped the following three.\nThis weekend, the Hoosiers will look to get the ball rolling again as they play their second Big Ten set of the season. This time, they move on to a four-game series against Northwestern, with the first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday at Sembower Field. \nThough Northwestern is still winless in the Big Ten, Smith warned his team about trying to play the way it has and still come out with a victory.\n“This league’s too good, and if you’re \nnot ready to play, then Northwestern is more than capable of beating you,” Smith said.\nThough the Hoosiers haven’t hit with much power through their first 18 games of the season, they entered last week’s contest against Michigan State playing small ball to win games. \nBut the hitting did not come around as the Hoosiers only managed to hit .232 in the four-game series.\n“I think if anything, it was more mental,” junior designated hitter Reid Briglia said of the team’s performance last weekend. “I think we \nlet up a little bit, but the way we’ve been practicing these last couple of days, we’ve really turned it up as a team.”\nSmith will look to get his Hoosiers (11-11, 1-3) on the right track against a struggling Northwestern squad. \nThe Wildcats dropped all four games in their opening Big Ten matchup against Michigan and are 6-15 on the year.\nUnlike the Hoosiers, however, Northwestern has had an abundance of offense this year.\nThe Wildcats are led by juniors Jake Owens and Antonio Mule. They are No. 1 and No. 2 in batting average, runs scored and RBIs. Owens is batting .384 on the year with 17 RBIs and 17 runs scored, while Mule is hitting .364 with 14 RBIs and three home runs. \nIU has only one home run as a team.\n“We’re not a power team, and we’ve got to do what we do well, which is move runners and steal bases and do the different things because we’re not a one-swing-of-the-bat-score-three-runs team,” Smith said.\nOn the pitching side for Northwestern, senior Dan Schwartz (2-1) leads the team with a 4.60 ERA. \nOn the other side of the diamond, the Hoosiers’ top five pitchers all have ERAs less than 4.00, and two of them – Matt Bashore and Jason Ferrell – are freshmen.\n“As I look at our hitting, yeah we struggled, but I still feel good about where we are because we pitch it,” Smith said. “If you have good pitching, you’ll always have a chance to win.”\nBut good pitching or not, the Hoosiers will need to jump-start their hitting to be effective. After a more focused week of practice, the Hoosiers believe they have fixed their mistakes and are ready to take the field, junior infielder Jon Fixler said.\n“We’re just really focused on doing what we need to do here,” Fixler said. “We feel that if we play the way we can, then we’re going to be a tough opponent, no matter who we’re playing.”