April 12, 1998

Northwestern's Mike Stritch Ties Big Ten Baseball Mark

He Gets Six Hits in One Game

EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern fifth-year senior left fielder Mike Stritch (Chicago, Ill./Brother Rice) tied a 41-year-old Big Ten Conference record on Friday with his 6-for-6 performance in NU's 20-18 victory at Penn State. Stritch became just the third player in Big Ten history to record six hits in a conference game. The other two were Purdue's Bill Gorman vs. Iowa on May 4, 1957, and Northwestern's Don Burson vs. Wisconsin on May 22, 1948.

In the four-game series at Penn State, Stritch hit 13-for-18 (.722) with nine runs scored and 10 RBIs. He also knocked his fourth homer of the season on Sunday as part of a six-RBI effort. His game-by-game stats for the week (including Wednesday's rain-shortened game vs. UW-Milwaukee) appear below.

Stritch currently leads the Wildcats in hitting (.387) and RBIs (29), and is batting .436 against Big Ten pitching this season. Northwestern (16-14, 4-8 Big Ten) plays at Northeastern Illinois on Wednesday before traveling to Indiana for a four-game series this weekend against the Hoosiers.

Game (Date)         AB  R   H   RBI 2B  3B  HR  K   BB  SB-A    AVG
UW-Milw. (4/7)      0   2   0   0   0   0   0   0   2   0-0     n/a
@ Penn State (4/10) 6   4   6   3   1   0   0   0   0   0-0     1.000
@ Penn State (4/11) 4   1   2   1   0   0   0   1   0   0-0     .800
@ Penn State (4/11) 3   2   2   0   1   0   0   1   0   1-1     .769
@ Penn State (4/12) 5   2   3   6   0   0   1   0   0   0-0     .722
TOTALS              18  11  13  10  2   0   1   2   2   1-1     .722
Stritch on-base pct. for the week:  .750 (13 hits and two walks in 20 plate appearances)
Stritch slugging pct. for the week:  1.000 (10 singles, two doubles and a homer in 18 at-bats)