That was senior pitcher Evan Blesoff’s line in the first game of a four-game series against Ohio State last weekend — after he had given up seven runs in the first three innings.

Blesoff allowed six runs in the first inning, all on singles — three of which didn’t leave the infield. But in the third inning a ground out and a run-scoring sacrifice fly began what would be six innings of perfection for Blesoff. He retired 18 Ohio State batters in a row before walking the lead-off man in the ninth in a 7-2 Northwestern loss.

“I think it was just they were hitting the ball in the right places in the first inning,” Blesoff said. “It wasn’t like, ‘All right, I got it now guys.’ It was, ‘Good for you guys, now let’s go.’ And I felt good the rest of the game.”

The Oak Park, Ill., native finished the 138-pitch complete game by getting the final three batters to fly out.

“I think Blesoff did an ungodly job,” coach Paul Stevens said. “There were two plays that we probably could have got outs, but they had a lot of seeing-eye singles … Was any ball in that inning hit hard? You got guys with their butts in the dugout and reaching out and hitting balls up the middle with two outs.”

Marc Blesoff, Evan Blesoff’s father, attended the game as he has for the majority of his son’s career.

He said he had mixed emotions watching the game, while he tried to forget about the first inning so he could enjoy the rest of the performance.

“It was hard to get past the first inning,” Marc Blesoff said. “I would sort of go back and forth, look at the scoreboard and see all the zeros and then see the six in the first inning and remember that there wasn’t hardly a ball hit out of the infield.

“But it doesn’t really show up in the statistics. It’s a loss, his earned run average goes up. But it was probably one of the best games he’s ever pitched in his life.”

Blesoff, who made two starts in his career before this year, has become the ace of the NU pitching staff this season, Stevens said.

Stevens made a comparison in practice last week when describing his Big Ten series-opening starter.

“He’s probably not your typical guy that goes out on Fridays that a lot of people have,” Stevens said. “But you know what, there’s another No. 31 (Chicago Cubs pitcher Greg Maddux) on the other side of town here, just a little bit south of us, that has won a lot of ball games just keeping people off balance, hitting his spots, moving the thing around and changing speeds.”

This season Blesoff has doubled his career win total with four and more than doubled his career innings, pitching a team-high 73 innings.

Unless Blesoff is used in one of two midweek games this week, he only has one start remaining in his collegiate career.

“It hasn’t really affected me yet,” Blesoff said. “I don’t have any regrets, like I wish I threw a curveball here or that type of thing. But whatever, it will probably hit me next week.”

Reach Abe Rakov at [email protected].