Jake Owens is the starting third baseman for Northwestern University. He was named to the pre-season all-conference squad in the Big 10. Jake hails from Wisconsin.

Momentum

The momentum I talked about in my last blog has continued to build.  After an early slip-up in our first Big Ten weekend against Purdue, we found ourselves continuing to climb, striving to reach the .500 mark.  We were finally able to reach a mid-season goal this weekend when we took three of four games at Iowa to get to 8-8 in the conference.

After the weather forced us to wait out a long and grinding weekend last week against Minnesota, Mother Nature was no more welcoming in Iowa.  The waiting during the Minnesota weekend finally culminated in back to back double-headers on Sunday and Monday afternoon.  Iowa was not much better when a day-long downpour on Friday forced us to wait and play back to back double-headers on Saturday and Sunday.

Double headers are not uncommon in college baseball, but that doesn’t mean they are easy to play; especially when coupled with the intensity of conference play.  The Big Ten has a rule that the games have to be played in a specific order.  The teams must first play a 9-inning game, then a seven inning game, another seven, and a nine.  This means that the last double-header is played as a seven and then a nine inning game.  Let me tell you, coming off two straight weekends of this format, that last nine inning game can get a little long.  But one thing is for sure, it’s a whole lot easier to play those long weekends when you’re taking three of four games!

To continue our path of success we knew we needed individual players to step up in clutch situations.  This past weekend gave us a nice mix of the usual suspects as well as some new faces.  When I say the usual suspects, I am referring to Jake Goebbert who continues to hit doubles at a higher rate than most people single.  As for the new faces, we had a gutsy performance by reliever Jon Purcell, who was able to hold down Iowa’s potent top of the order to secure his first save of the year.  The more arms a team can have confidence in coming out of the bullpen, the more wins they will see piling up.

Monday is typically our day off, and after a long, intense, and satisfying weekend, the team was looking forward to relaxing.  We spent our day off the way you would expect after enjoying a long weekend of baseball: by taking in more baseball!  Being at Northwestern means we are located in an area that gives a college student many options on a sunny 70-degree first day of spring.  Several members of the team decided to make the short trip down to Wrigley field and take in the showdown between the Cubs and Mets.  A few others (including myself) made the slightly longer trip up to Milwaukee to watch the Brewers face off against the Cardinals.  Cubs fans were greeted with a nice ‘W’ while Brewers fans watched Turnbow leave balls up in the zone late in the game…again.  At least Miller Park still has the best cheese curds in the country.

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