Northwestern baseball head coach Brian Polaha has been a little uneasy about his team’s offense in the early going.

One answer to that is to get good pitching and another is for the hitters to start to warm up even through the chilly weather. While the hitting is slowly coming around, the pitching staff recently posted back-to-back shutouts and has allowed just seven hits in its last 13 innings.

The pitching success has begun with starters Shaun O’Donnell and Josh Farber.

O’Donnell, a senior, recorded the 100th strikeout of his career earlier in the year against Salisbury and has held opponents to a 1.62 ERA in three starts this season with 13 strikeouts in his 13 innings. Farber meanwhile is making the most of his junior season with a 1.20 ERA in his two starts.

Junior Aidan Freeman has worked as both a starter and reliever in his two games this season and has a 3.00 ERA in the two games. Senior Josh Lichman and sophomore Griffin Unrath have both made two relief appearances without allowing an earned run.

The offense has put up 18 runs in their last two games, but Polaha was a little concerned about some missed opportunities in a 6-0 win over Southern Lehigh and against Kutztown, the offense was helped some by four errors.

In the 12-0 win over the Cougars, Northwestern collected eight hits with Bob Croneberger and Nolan Fitzgerald both recording two hits. Croneberger and fellow senior Justin Augustus both drove in two runs, while Josh Lichman drove in three in the win.

Lichman leads the team with a .412 average and is tied for the team lead in RBI with Croneberger, who is batting .316, with both players having driven in five runs. In addition to his strong pitching, Farber has hit well in the early going, hitting .400 with four RBI.

As a team, Northwestern is batting .268 through their first six games.

In the next week, Northwestern (2-1 Colonial, 3-3 overall) plays Catasauqua (0-4, 0-5), Palmerton (1-1, 2-3), and Bangor (3-0, 3-1) in league games.