EVANSTON — Something was missing.
It was early 2015, and the Northwestern football season had ended a few months prior. Dan Kubiuk, a walk-on specialist, had just redshirted his first season in Evanston. The 6-foot-2 freshman from Barrington, Illinois had proven to himself that he could play a sport at the collegiate level, but still, something was missing.
For the first time in years, Kubiuk wasn't getting ready to play baseball.
"I didn't realize it at the time how much I missed playing baseball," Kubiuk said. "It didn't hit me until after that season where I was like, ‘I'm not switching to baseball gear right now.