Consider it slightly out of the ordinary when one of the Wildcats’ best starters comes into a meaningless nonconference game in relief, blows a save but then picks up a win?
Gabe Ribas stole the victory — only his fourth of the season — on a strange afternoon, closing out the 10th inning of Tuesday’s 10-9 win in the Cats’ home finale against Western Michigan (24-25).
“The way this season’s been for me, I’ll take a vulture win,” Ribas said. “I’m not proud of it, but I’ll be the vulture today. The way this season has gone, I’m not surprised by anything.”
Ribas came into the game in the ninth to pick up a little midweek work and to collect a save along the way. But a bad bounce at short, an error and a double later, Northwestern’s two-run lead evaporated and Ribas had his first blown save of the season.
In the bottom of the ninth, the Cats (24-26) went down in order for the third straight inning. After belting out nine runs in the first six frames to claim a 9-4 lead, NU quit hitting.
With the game already dragging past 2 1/2 hours and rain clouds gathering across the street from Rocky Miller Park, the afternoon seemed to hold the promise of a 15-inning marathon.
“Everything just kind of deteriorated real fast and a couple of bad hops threw us into a bind,” said catcher Ken Padgett, who found himself at the plate in the 10th long after he had hoped to head to the locker room. “I was just thinking I was tired, and I wanted to go home.”
The second batter of the 10th, Padgett abruptly ended the game when he stroked a walk-off home run just over the leftfield wall and wearily rounded the bases to meet his teammates at home.
The sophomore, along with a bench full of backups, took advantage of the start. Padgett’s second home run of the season capped a 3-for-4 day, which included a pair of runs scored and two RBIs.
“We’ve been waiting a long time for him to hit a home run” NU coach Paul Stevens said. “He spends a lot of time in the weight room and in front of mirrors, but he finally pulled it off, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.”
Padgett, the regular shortstop to start the season and a fill-in at third the last two weeks, replaced regular Joe Hietpas behind the plate Tuesday.
Sidelined with a nagging hamstring, Hietpas didn’t see action for the first time all season. The Cats hope that he will be able to start this weekend’s series at Minnesota, when NU’s postseason fate will be determined.
A similar injury, also sustained this weekend at Ohio State, left outfielder Jason Krynski on the bench. Second baseman Eric Roeder, one of the few regulars in the game, exited early after getting nicked on the arm by a pitch.
The rash of injuries forced an unusually young lineup onto the field. Stevens started five freshmen and only one senior. Third baseman Wes Robinson, the old man in the lineup, left the game for a pinch hitter in the seventh, marking one of the only times the Cats have played without a senior this season.
“It was kind of a glimpse of the future, seeing what we have next year,” Padgett said. “And it looks pretty good.”
Sophomore Brandon Ackley, receiving a start as the designated hitter, used his opportunity to hit one of NU’s two other home runs.
Freshman Dan Konecny, who has become a reliable hurler out of the pen, got his first start in over a month. The right-hander lasted only three innings, and was followed by an unending parade of relievers out of the bullpen.
The game almost ended with another freshman on the mound. Cody Conway threw a perfect eighth to snap the comeback that the Broncos began mounting with a three-run seventh.
But Stevens brought in Ribas in the ninth to make things interesting.
“We felt, basically, that the fans weren’t into the game enough any more,” Stevens said. “We just thought we would wake them up and infuse a little bit of adrenaline into the whole thing.”
