By KAROLINA JURESIUTE
Student Reporter
Northwestern Rangers baseball team opens the 2024 season on Friday, hosting Metropolitan State University of Denver at 1 p.m.
The series continues Saturday and Sunday, 1 p.m.
Head coach Ryan Bowen discussed the team’s goals for the season.
“We want to get off to a good start,” he said. “Last year we were really inconsistent at the beginning of the season; [we] had up and downs. We want to be more consistent this year.
“We want to lengthen our good stretches and shorten our bad stretches. Be tougher and be ready to be good on any day, no matter the conditions. Another really big focus for us is that we want to be better on the road this year.”
The Northwestern Rangers will open their season with 12 straight home games.
“It definitely helps us because we are playing good competition,” Bowen said. “Even though we are at home it is definitely an advantage. It is nice to be able to play in front of our home fans, get more familiar with our field.”
The weather is not the only challenge for Northwestern baseball every year.
“Our conference is really good,” Bowen said. “It is one of the best baseball conferences in all division II, so it is tough. The challenges for us are to continue to be more consistent and find a way to get to the top half and make the post season. We have been able to do a lot of great things at my time here. We knocked a lot of doors out; we have done a lot of things that haven’t been done since we became a NCAA school. We want more than a postseason.”
The 2024 Northwestern Baseball probably has the most returning group since 2021.
“We have a lot of key returners, especially on the mound,” he said, “and it is exciting to have that veteran presence on the mound, but also position-player wise. We returned several outfielders, a couple of infielders, and both of our catchers.
“We expect those guys to help our new players and we are also really excited about several of our new players as well. I feel like we have a really deep roster, a deepest one we had in several years and I am excited to compete with them.”
Bowen said the team really is a different team this year.
“Offensively, we are much more athletic, faster group, so our offense will look a little different,” he said.
Last year we led the conference in homeruns; I don’t know that we are going to hit as many homeruns, but I feel like we are going to score a lot of different ways, steal a lot of bases. We will do a lot of things differently on offense.”
This season the team will have 50 games, including 27 home games and 23 on the road. The first eight games will be non-conference. The team starts the conference games Feb. 16 against Ouachita Baptist University at 1 and 4 p.m.
