Ben Greenspan is cooking two years into his tenure. Where will he take the ‘Cats from here?
A heartbreakingly brutal final weekend of Big Ten play sees the Northwestern Wildcats (25-27, 13-17 B1G) finish as the first team out of the conference tournament. Two losses to No. 15 UCLA, grouped with two Illinois wins in a series against Ohio State and a Michigan State victory over Minnesota on the final day forced the ‘Cats to cancel travel plans to Charles Schwab Field this spring.
With the 2025 season officially over for the men in purple and white, it’s time to break down what this season actually means for ‘Cats ball and its future — a future that looks to be very optimistic.
It’s safe to say game one of the season stood as a microcosm of Northwestern baseball in the post-COVID era: a whopping 19-6 loss to Long Beach State of all teams. Little did we know that a week later, we’d be witnessing Northwestern’s best start to a season since 2003.
The ‘Cats went on a five-game win streak from there, winning the LBS series, then defeating Harvard, and sweeping a doubleheader against Fordham.
From there, Northwestern ran into the toughest part of their non-conference schedule: an eight-game stretch where they’d take on Indiana, No. 17 Duke, and The Citadel. The ‘Cats would only win the final two games in their four game set against the Bulldogs during that run.
After losses to the University of Illinois-Chicago and Penn State to follow, ‘Cats faithful didn’t have much faith left in Greenspan and Co. Then, it became the Trent Liolios show.
The junior added a new toe-tap to enhance his approach in the box over the course of this past offseason, and boy did it pay off. He’d open his conference season by mashing four home runs in the aforementioned opening series against the Nittany Lions, including a trifecta of bombs in the weekend finale.
NU got rolling from there, posting back-to-back series wins against Illinois and Maryland, adding an extra-inning midweek thriller to the win column against UIC — getting revenge in the process — before facing their biggest test yet: a weekend marquee against the Big Ten’s best in Iowa. It drop the first two games of the series before the force of the RY-nado sent the Hawkeyes back to Iowa City with a loss.
A Ryan Kucherak frozen rope into the left-center gap gave Northwestern a 5-4 victory in game three of the series.
The ‘Cats started to look shaky from that point on. They would lose their next four conference series, and would suffer a whopping 27-11 loss to Northern Illinois in the April 15 midweek. However, in that rough stretch of baseball laid a three game win streak with NU wins over Washington, Butler, and Purdue.
After taking two of three from Ohio State, Northwestern’s tournament hopes relied on a series win over No. 15 UCLA — a task that proved too much for Chicago’s Big Ten Team. Their earlier series loss to Sparty leaves them in the dust at 13th in the conference standings.
From this season, there’s a lot of good to take away for the future of this young squad.
Oh boy, where to start?
How about starting with the most exciting part of baseball: homers.
As a team, NU mashed 73 of them, incinerating their previous team record that the 2021 squad set with 65. Leading the pack were Ryan Kucherak and Trent Liolios, who battled for the Northwestern single-season home run crown this month.
Liolios accredits his newfound success at the plate to a Alex Verdugo-like toe-tap he introduced into his timing for this season. The lefty has found an abundance of success hitting to the pull-side, launching numerous baseballs off Welsh-Ryan Arena in 2025.
The junior went on an early conference season tear, mashing eight homers in his first three series in conference play. He’d set a new Northwestern single-season home run mark at 16 in the ‘Cats midweek matchup against Butler on April 29, toppling Bob Brucato’s record that stood for 37 years.
Liolios’ record would stand for all but two and a half weeks.
Enter Ryan Kucherak, an LSU transfer who showed flashes of a complete five tool player in the 16 appearances he made for the Tigers last year. He was an immediate impact player upon his arrival in Evanston, claiming the vacant shortstop role left by the departure of Tony Livermore. He’s taken to the position well as the starter, being a sure-handed glove in the hole while being the prototypical three-hole hitter in the lineup.
Kucherak started to heat up after a three-homer performance against Illinois on March 21, eventually breaking out during Northwestern’s final postseason push. The sophomore went 5-for-10 to help the ‘Cats take two of three from Ohio State, two of those hits leaving Koldyke Field, while driving in five runs over the weekend. Kucherak earned himself Big Ten Player of the Week honors for his brilliance.
With two home runs in Northwestern’s series opening win over the 15-th ranked Bruins, Kucherak sent Liolios’ home run record up in smoke. He added one more in the final game to set the all-time single-season mark at 18.
With Kucherak retaining at least two years of eligibility, it seems as though he’ll be the cornerstone Greenspan will build around. Alongside him will be Jackson Freeman, who will be looking to avenge a subpar 2025 year next season. The two will spearhead Northwestern baseball for the foreseeable future, with names like Owen McElfatrick and Jack Lausch nearing the end of their collegiate careers and Trent Liolios entering the transfer portal. Preston Knott has reached the end of the road, and Bennett Markinson will be hoping to hear his name called in the MLB Draft come June.
With that said, ‘Cats faithful shouldn’t be too worried about the holes they leave in this squad. Were they integral to the program? Yes, very much so. But Greenspan has a sixth sense when it comes to stealing quality players from the transfer portal: Tyler Ganus, Jack Counsell and Sam Hibloki to name a few. I wouldn’t be surprised to see BG steal some quality utility players to fill the gaps to come.
The big question that needs answering is around the pitching staff: will young arms like Matthew Kouser and Christian Forniss step up next season and command the zone better?
This season, Greenspan took a “pitchers by comittee” approach, rotating arms in and out of the rotation throughout to find who fits and who doesn’t. There are a couple that stood out at points throughout the year: Jack Grunkemeyer, Ethan Borggren, and the aforementioned Forniss and Kouser.
Let’s start with the ladder, who may have had the best debut in Northwestern baseball history against Long Beach State. Kouser is the first NU pitcher since at least 1995-96 (the year of the oldest Northwestern media guide that can be found inside Anderson Hall) to go six innings, giving up only one run, in their collegiate debut. Kouser took the horns of the No. 3 starter role, appearing on numerous Sundays to start the year.
Flexed into the No. 4 spot initially was Carter Danz, who struggled greatly in his first couple appearances. Forniss then was tried in that spot, and he grew into it very well, his best start coming against Michigan State: 5.1 innings — his longest outing of the year — giving up three runs on six hits, striking out two.
Grunkemeyer and Borggren seem like possible No. 5 starters with the ability to give the ‘Cats length out of the bullpen. Grunkemeyer’s submarine arm angle seems to give him a unique advantage, especially when following Kouser or Crawford Wade, both coming over-the-top through their release points. For the first month of play, Grunkemeyer was on point with his funky pitching. However, his season was flipped on its head after a rough outing against Maryland, giving up seven runs in a relief outing where he only recorded one out. Despite that, the first-year showed flashes of his potential in a rather strange second half of his season.
Borggren’s opportunities on the bump have been limited, but made a statement with a scoreless inning and a third against Butler — an appearance in which his fastball had a bit more bite to it than previously. In only eight appearances this year, he’s made the best of what been given to him, as he had scoreless innings against Nebraska and Iowa as well. With the potential to have one of the most electric fastballs in the conference, Greenspan may look to shape the Chicago native into a late-game arm. The ‘Cats future closer may be waiting in the wings as we speak.
Despite the record remaining below .500, it’s an exciting time to be a fan of Northwestern baseball. The ‘Cats seem to be one player away from reaching a crescendo in the Big Ten.