Jan. 23, 2007

EVANSTON, Ill. - Northwestern's baseball team will spend the next two weeks in final preparations for the 2007 season opener at Texas Tech on Feb. 9. The Wildcats-as in year's past-will play a number of games (17) away from their home field of Rocky Miller Park. Not that that is a bad thing, because as of Jan. 23, there were two inches of snow on the field.

Ten of those first 17 games will be played in the great state of Texas. The Wildcats have a pair of players who hail from the Lone Star State, freshmen Kenneth Avila and Chad Noble.

While in Lubbock (home of Texas Tech) NU is scheduled to play four games, two versus Texas Tech and a pair against Western Illinois. All four games are being played at Tech's Dan Law Field. The Red Raiders were 31-26-1 in 2006 and finished eighth in the Big 12. Western Illinois ended last year 32-32 overall and 14-8 in the Mid-Continent (second place).

After an open weekend, Northwestern heads back south to Beaumont, Texas, home of the Lamar Cardinals. The 'Cats play three games at Vincent-Beck Stadium, the first against host Lamar. NU also takes on Arkansas State from the Sun Belt and Creighton from the Missouri Valley.

In week four of 2007, the 'Cats play a pair of games in Arlington and one in neighboring Dallas. The first of the three games is against host Texas-Arlington (3/2). After a game in Dallas against Dallas-Baptist, NU returns to Arlington to take on New Mexico State. The NMSU game is being played at UTA's Clay Gould Ballpark.

NU's next seven games take place in Bradenton, Fla., as part of the IMG Academy Tournament spring break trip. The team will live in rented condos and play those seven games in nine days, including an out-of-conference contest against Ohio State. The two teams do not play each other during the conference regular season. Other teams include Army, Massachusetts (twice), Dartmouth (twice) and Harvard.

Following the spring break trip, Northwestern begins its conference season. In the final eight weeks of the regular season, NU is scheduled to play 32 Big Ten contests and six mid-week, nonconference games.

2007 Preseason Notes
Kicks Like a Mulé
Junior Antonio Mulé led the Big Ten with 11 home runs in 2006, which included two in the Big Ten postseason tournament. Those two round-trippers earned him all-tournament team honors, NU's first distinction since Gabe Ribas earned the honor in 2002.

Coming Down
Senior catcher Geoff Dietz threw out a career-high 24 runners trying to steal base in 2006. In his career Dietz has thrown out 44 runners trying to steal base in 93 games played.

Top Frosh
Sophomore Tommy Finn broke into the collegiate ranks with a bang. As a true freshman, Finn started 58 of NU's 59 games, which included all 32 Big Ten contests. After an adjustment period in the field, Finn made only five errors in the Wildcats' last 30 games, recording 49 putouts and 73 assists.

Taking Two
Junior Aaron Newman is well on his way into the Wildcat record books. That is, if he can keep up his stolen base pace. If Newman mirrors his first two seasons as a collegian--34 stolen bases--on the base paths, he is on pace to finish second on NU's all-time stolen bases list. Michael Huff (1982-85) is atop the career stolen bases list with 85.

We're Going Streaking!
Junior Jake Owens has started every game he has played since walking on campus in 2005. His consecutive games started streak is at 88 games and counting. As a freshman, Owens started the first 29 games of the season before being sidelined with a season-ending injury. But the Wisconsin native bounced back and started all 59 games in 2006 and was third on the team with a .319 average. Owens' 75 hits last season was eighth best in school history and one behind Antonio Mulé's team-leading 76.

Ready and Waiting
Senior Dan Schwartz has appeared in 47 games in the last two seasons, the most by any Wildcat. In those 47 games, Schwartz has a 7-3 record and has tallied seven saves. He also has started three games and thrown a total of 86.2 innings.

Longevity
Head coach Paul Stevens and his entire staff have been together for 12 years. Stevens is working on his 20th season as the skipper, while pitching coach Tim Stoddard is in his 14th season. Ron Klein enters his 12th season, while volunteer assistant Joe Keenan enters his 20th.

Newcomers
Northwestern's 2007 recruiting class has eight freshman and one transfer from John Carroll University. This class of nine follows a 2006 class that also equaled nine. Fourteen of the Wildcats' 27-man roster are underclassmen.

Out-of-State Talent
Four of this year's nine newcomers hail from the state of Illinois (Matt Diedrich, Jake Goebbert, Jim Grieco and Cole Livermore). Two rustled up from Texas (Kenneth Avila and Chad Noble) while another pair surfed over from California (David Jensen and Jonathan Purcell). The final member of the 2007 recruiting class sliced down from Wisconsin (Joe Muraski).

Encore Performance
After a record breaking 2006 Big Ten season, Northwestern looks to build on last year's success. In 2006, NU won a school record 21 Big Ten games, demolishing the previous best of 15 (done five times, most recently in 2003). With those 21 wins, NU placed second in the regular season standings. The race for first--with Michigan--came down to the last weekend of the regular season. Northwestern split a four-game series with Purdue, while Michigan swept four games versus Iowa.