In Major League Baseball, pitchers and catchers report to spring training in the middle of February. In college baseball, it’s when teams start their regular season schedule.

NIU barely got to practice outside this season, having a little bit of time on the football field at Huskie Stadium. Yet, the Huskies travel down to Starkville, Miss. the weekend of Feb. 20 where they will take on North Florida and Mississippi State.

“It’s something you have to fight through,” said catcher/outfielder Justin Behm of playing their first game with hardly any practice time outside. “You get used to it fast. I think sometimes it can give us an advantage because we work so hard, hitting inside where the lighting is bad. It’s harder to see the ball, and then you get outside, and you feel like the ball looks like a beach ball. It’s a give and take thing.”

The trip to Starkville is the beginning of a tough early season schedule for the Huskies. Feb. 26 through Mar. 1, NIU will travel to Tempe to take on No. 25 Oregon State, winner of two of the past three national championships, No. 13 Arizona State, and No. 10 Missouri. NIU will also face No. 18 Kent State in MAC play April 3 through April 5.

“Seeing those big name teams is always fun,” said center fielder Pat Minogue. “We’re going to have some good venues to play in. It’s exciting.”

NIU finished the 2008 season 28-26 and matched their deepest MAC tournament run. NIU finished in second place in the MAC West and fourth overall in the conference. Obviously, Ed Mathey and company hope to claim the MAC crown this year.

“The MAC West is going to be competitive again,” Mathey said. “I think for us, a lot of it’s going to be our pitching. It’s no secret, we graduated about 70 percent of the innings pitched last year.”

NIU lost two-thirds of last season’s weekend rotation in Trevor Feeney (selected by the Detroit Tigers in the 31st round of the 2008 MLB Draft) and Adam Holdenrid. The Huskies also lost Matt Jernstad, who made 11 starts last season.

The team also lost key relievers in Dave Nykiel and Dan Atkenson. Atkenson led the Huskies with a 1.86 ERA in 2008.

Two players Mathey will count on to fill his rotation openings are senior Brandon Copp and junior Dave Reynolds. Copp and Reynolds started a combined 15 games last season with Reynolds going 5-0.

Mathey will also start Andy Deain, NIU’s closer last season, in the rotation. Deain went 4-1 and had 10 saves last year.

“He’s got as good of an arm as anybody on our team,” Mathey said of Deain.

Other guys who should see innings are Chuck Lukanen, a transfer from North Iowa Area Community College, and freshmen Chris Wakefield and Tom Barry. Mathey says Wakefield will probably get a start the first weekend of the year.

“We’ve got some guys, it’s just about going out and figuring out who’s going to be the best ones,” Mathey said. “If we do get some things happening, we have a great chance of moving Andy to the back of the bullpen where he’s one of the best in the league.”

Offensively, NIU’s two best returning hitters are Behm and third basemen Jordin Hood. Behm hit .299 with 11 home runs and 42 RBI’s last season, spending time at catcher and DH. This season he will also see some time at the corner outfield spots. Hood hit .321 with seven homers and led the team with 43 RBI’s. All in all, the Huskies return most of last year’s offense.

“We have all the confidence in the world in our pitching staff,” Behm said. “If for some reason it comes out and we have to score more runs than we did last year, it’s something I think our team is capable of doing. We got a lot of key guys coming back.”