up next for ’Cats baseball

Northwest baseball is nearly a month into its season, and the Bearcats have yet to have a home game this season. This changes as the ’Cats will have their home-opener against Missouri Southern March 3.

For the 2022 season, Northwest was 11-8 at Bearcat Baseball Field compared to 5-15 on the road. Coach Darin Loe said playing at home will be good for the Bearcats.

“We got outside a few days in early January for practice at Bearcat (Baseball Field), but we haven’t in a while,” Loe said. “Every time we’ve stepped on a field now, it’s been game day. … It’s huge to be able to play at home.”

Senior pitcher Alex Slocum totaled 24 strikeouts in five home games during the 2022 season. Through four overall games this season, he’s recorded 17 strikeouts. He said it will be a nice change of pace to finally play at home.

“It’s very special — home games here are a lot of fun to play,” Slocum said. “Having one of the only (natural fields) in the MIAA has an advantage for us. We play on it all fall. Also, just the wind and the atmosphere — the ’Cat plays differently than a lot of the turf fields in the MIAA.”

Northwest (2-12, 0-3 MIAA) will open up its home schedule against the Lions (11-5, 2-1 MIAA) in a three-game series March 3-5. The Bearcats are on a four-game losing skid after being swept in a threegame set by Central Missouri (9-5 overall, 3-0 MIAA) in Northwest’s conference opener Feb. 24-25.

In 2022, the Bearcats lost the first five conference games of their season. Slocum said the key for the Bearcats to have a different outcome from a season ago and to bounce back from the team’s 0-3 conference start is to focus on themselves.

“We talk about trusting the process while we’re working on our process — focus on that rather than wins and loses,” Slocum said.

The Lions won the last three- game series against the Bearcats, 2-1, March 3-5, 2022. Northwest won the final game 6-3 and snapped a sevengame losing streak against Southern. Slocum, who recorded six strikeouts in the win against them in 2021, said in order to be able to defeat the Bearcats they have to not let the Lions bats get hot. Southern tops the conference with 36 home runs.

“I feel like we have a really good chance to win these games,” Slocum said. “They have a lot of good hitters up and down their lineup, but if we’re able to limit them to two or three runs a game, I think we have a good shot at beating them.”

Next on the docket after the threegame series is a contest with Rockhurst (2-9) March 7 at Bearcat Baseball Field. The Bearcats won the last two games against the Hawks.

Slocum said in order to defeat the Hawks, the Bearcats need to get back to the basics. Loe said in order to get better and win, the team needs to stay focused mentally.

“Those games are really tune-up games for the most part,” Slocum said. “Just get guys that may not be getting (at-bats), try to get them comfortable in the box and try to get pitchers comfortable on the mound.”

“At this point of the season, you can beat yourself up if you’re worried about the wrong things,” Loe said. “Just players focusing on what they need to do and being able to have success at the end of the day.”