Santini and Sons: How cookies and a catcher have helped mold a pitching staff into a contender

While his wife helps fuel healthy eating habits off the field, Northwestern catcher JC Santini helps create healthy pitching habits on it and the results show as the Wildcats are 13-4 in their last 17 games.

Sometimes it's banana bread. Other times it's snickerdoodles.

"I don't have a favorite because I haven't been able to try everything, but the snickerdoodles were really good," said Northwestern interim head coach Josh Reynolds after their game against Illinois on Friday.

Reynolds is talking about the treats that JC Santini's wife, Anysa, often bakes for the team before games throughout the season.

"She's made a couple of different things for the team," said Santini in an interview after practice last Wednesday. "She's made banana bread. She's made peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, which is probably her staple, that or oatmeal chocolate chip."

 Santini--a graduate transfer from St. Mary's University and the Wildcats' starting catcher--is both the oldest member of the team and the lone married man on the roster. So, while him and his wife sometime remind his teammates of a mom and dad combo, there have also been a few jokes about what his old man self brings to the table in comparison to some of his younger teammates.

"The name of our group message is 'Santini and Sons'," Santini said. "I'm pretty much like, I guess the old guy out here trying to keep everything together, you know? But it's fun, it's a good role to have."

Despite it being his first season in Evanston, Santini has won the respect of his peers rather quickly and it has paid dividends in helping mold a pitching staff that features pitchers that are both young and new to the team.

"From day one JC stepped onto campus, he just really tried to get to know everyone," Reynolds said. "He likes to talk, especially to the pitchers and figure out what works best for them...and you know, just coming in as a fifth year guy having some of that experience, he knew how to do that right away."

Even though Northwestern lost on a walk-off single against the Fighting Illini Friday, 7-6, the Wildcats are still 13-4 with a team ERA of 3.65 over their last 17 games, which is 2.22 runs lower than their team ERA for the entire 2021 season.

The success experienced by Northwestern over that stretch is due much in part to starting pitchers Sean Sullivan, Michael Farinelli, Jacob Sharm and Grant Comstock. The one detail each of these pitchers have in common is that Santini is there behind the plate to help manage the game.

"Being a presence that can kind of bring in some insight from being around the college game for a while, I hope that helps settle some guys that are feeling nerves," Santini said. "A part of the game I really enjoy is creating those relationships and helping guys grow in their pitching."

Santini will be behind the plate to catch Farinelli today at 3 P.M. in game 2 of their 3-game series in Champaign against Illinois.