the daily northwestern - april 26, 2013
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The April 26, 2013, issue of The Daily NorthwesternTRANSCRIPT
FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2013 THE DAILY NORTHWESTERN | SPORTS 11
The Daily NorthwesternSpring !"#$ | An independent voice since #%!$ | Evanston, Ill.
EDITOR IN CHIEF | Michele CorristonMANAGING EDITORS | Marshall Cohen, Patrick
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WEB EDITOR |Joseph DieboldASSISTANT WEB EDITOR | Rohan Nadkarni
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BREAKING NEWS/SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR | Manuel Rapada
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CAMPUS EDITOR | Cat ZakrzewskiASSISTANT EDITORS | Jeanne Kuang
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CITY EDITOR | Jia YouASSISTANT EDITOR | Edward Cox, Ciara
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OPINION EDITOR | Jillian Sandler
ASSISTANT EDITORS | Caryn Lenhoff, Yoni Muller
DESIGN EDITORS | Kelsey Ott, Chelsea Sherlock
ASSISTANT EDITOR | Victoria Jeon __________________
IN FOCUS EDITORS | Lauren Caruba, Kimmy Railey
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THE CURRENT EDITOR | Chelsea PengTHE CURRENT ASSISTANT EDITOR | Annie
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THE CURRENT ASSISTANT DESIGN EDITOR | Maria Fernandez-Davila___________________
PHOTO EDITOR | Melody Song, Skylar ZhangASSISTANT EDITORS | Hillary Back, Alexa
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COPY CHIEFS | Sophia Bollag, Devan Coggan, Lydia Ramsey
SLOT EDITORS | Sarah Blau, Bethany DeLong, Jenna Katz, Alyssa Brewer
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Baseball
NU faces in-state foe with postseason berth at riskBy ALEX PUTTERMAN!"# $%&'( )*+!",#-!#+) @AlexPutt./
In late February, two games into Northwestern’s /.01 campaign, out2elder Walker Moses outlined the team’s goal for the season.
“It’s de2nitely to get in the top six and make it into the (Big Ten) playo3s,” the sophomore said at the time.
Now, two months later, the Wildcats (04-05, 6-7 Big Ten) need to close their season strong to accom-plish that objective. 8e battle for the 2nal few spots in the Big Ten Tournament begins this weekend with a three-game series against Illinois (/9-0/, 6-6 Big Ten) in Champaign.
8e matchup will be a clash of opposing strengths: NU prides itself on pitching, while Illinois wins with its bats. 8e Fighting Illini are averaging 6.4 runs per game and second in the Big Ten in batting average, slugging percentage, on-base percentage, walks, dou-bles, home runs, total bases and runs scored, trailing only Indiana in each category.
“We’re excited to go play at U of I,” redshirt senior shortstop Trevor Stevens said. “It’s a great hitters
ballpark, and we know our pitchers are going to shut them down, like they have been all year.”
8e Cats, fourth in the conference in ERA and 2:h in batting average against, will return to their usual starting rotation a:er the weather and subsequent game at Wrigley Field threw the sta3 out of sync last weekend. Redshirt senior Zach Morton will start Fri-day, followed by senior Luke Farrell on Saturday and sophomore Brandon Magallones on Sunday.
Illinois’ o3ense is powered by senior out2elder Justin Parr, who leads the Big Ten with a .915 batting average and 7; total bases. He is second in slugging percentage, on-base percentage and RBI.
Justin’s twin brother, Jordan, a redshirt junior, is hitting .10. with 19 runs scored, tied for third in the Big Ten in that category, and 04 stolen bases, tied for second.
In the a:ermath of a 5-. loss to Wisconsin-Mil-waukee on Wednesday, coach Paul Stevens said he was glad his team’s struggles came outside of Big Ten play,
calling the coming weekend series “extremely impor-tant.” Given the conference standings, that could be an understatement.
At 6-7 in Big Ten play, NU stands eighth in the con-ference with nine Big Ten games remaining. Michigan State holds sixth place with a 5-9 record, and Illinois is seventh at 6-6. A failure to at least take two out of three from the Fighting Illini could end the Cats’ postseason hopes.
“I’m sure it’s in guys’ minds,” Stevens said. “But we’re more focused about the next game, more so than the weekend. We just got to prepare for Friday, and then however that plays out, then we’ll move on to Saturday.”
If NU does handle Illinois, it will have another shot to gain ground from a borderline playo3 team next weekend, when it hosts 2:h-place Ohio State, cur-rently 7-6 in conference. 8e Cats’ last Big Ten series of the season will pit them against Indiana (10-;, ;-9 Big Ten) from May 0. to 0/.
What happens if the Cats do qualify for the tournament?
“If we get into the playo3s,” Moses continued, back in February. “We’ll make a run for it.”
Daily file photo by Meghan White
IN A HOLE NU needs to finish in the top-6 to make the Big Ten Tournament, but it is currently in eighth place in the conference.
Northwesternvs. IllinoisChampaignFriday-Sunday
Women’s Tennis
Cats prepare for battle to regain B1G tournament titleBy MIKE MARUT!"# $%&'( )*+!",#-!#+)
With the Big Ten Tournament beginning 8urs-day, the conference seeded Northwestern at No. 1 a:er 2nishing the regular season at 7-/ in confer-ence play.
8e Wildcats’ only losses in conference play came to the top two seeds, Michigan and Nebraska.
8e top four seeds in the tournament have been granted a bye for the 2rst round. NU will face No. 6 Indiana on Friday in the quarter2nals a:er the Hoo-siers took out No. 00 Wisconsin 9-..
“I think the key to advancing is not overlooking
Indiana,” coach Claire Pollard said. “8e doubles points are important. We’ve got to turn around a cou-ple of matches that we lost in the regular season.”
Last time the Cats took on the Hoosiers, Indiana was without Carolyn Chupa due to a concussion. NU took Indiana by storm, though, and won 6-0, the only Indiana victory coming from Leslie Hureau in the No. 0 singles match. Chupa is expected to play in the tournament.
“In the tournament, any team can show up,” senior Kate Turvy said. “A lot of teams have a ton of energy since it’s just one tournament. We’re just excited to get out there no matter which team we play.”
Both Turvy and Pollard said the team has missed some opportunities this season, and NU must
capitalize on those chances this weekend.“We’re going to have to go out and 2ght,” Turvy
said. “We’ll need to execute better. We’ve had oppor-tunities all season, and now’s the time to execute.”
Senior Linda Abu Mushrefova believes she will have to play her top game to help the Cats reclaim the tournament title.
Tennis is not an individual sport, though, and each player must rely on the team to advance further.
“If we’re to win this tournament, then everyone’s got to (contribute),” Pollard said. “It can’t just be a cou-ple of spots. Every day a di3erent team (of doubles) or a di3erent player is going to have to step up and help us win something that we were not able to do during the regular season.”
Pollard dismissed the idea of losing focus with a 2rst-round bye. 8e team has not played on the 2rst day of the tournament under Pollard’s leadership, and NU has won 01 of the last 09 Big Ten tourna-ment titles.
Tournament play began 8ursday with seeds No. 5-0/ playing in the 2rst round.
No. 6 Indiana vs. No. 3 NorthwesternBloomington, Ind.2 p.m. Friday