With two out in the seventh inning and a 1-2 count, Northwestern pitcher Dan Brauer stared in at catcher Geoff Dietz for a sign. He nodded his head and went into the windup. He buried a fastball in the dirt, and Michigan State left fielder Ryan Basham chased for strike three.

The pitch clinched a 7-0 win for the Cats. It was also his eighth strikeout of the game.

It also was the last pitch of NU’s first no-hitter since Zach Schara blanked Penn State on April 18, 1999.

“I sat back, took off my hat, pulled out my pack of gum and enjoyed what I was watching,” coach Paul Stevens said. “It was a thing of beauty. He just pitched masterfully all day. It was a thing to behold.”

Brauer allowed only two baserunners in the first game on Sunday: catcher Kyle Day reached first when a strikeout got away from Dietz in the first, and centerfielder Troy Krider drew a two-out walk in the third.

Brauer, who lost shutouts in the last inning to Indiana and Penn State, said he only got nervous about the no-hitter in the seventh inning.

“I was hoping it wouldn’t repeat,” he said.

NU (22-29, 19-9 Big Ten) took three out of four games from Michigan State (24-27, 11-17) and stayed even with Michigan at the top of the Big Ten with one weekend of conference play left.

The Cats trailed 3-0 going into the bottom of the seventh inning in the first game Saturday, but four Spartan errors led to four NU runs and propelled the Cats to a 6-3 win.

“I thought the wind was affecting a few of the hops on grounders (Saturday),” Stevens said. “But it was kind of interesting.”

Third baseman Caleb Fields, who hit a two-run homerun in the eighth to extend the Cats’ lead, said the errors were crucial to the comeback.

“We were having trouble getting something going at that time,” he said. “We were fortunate to get some of their mistakes. It jump-started us.”

After NU got seven innings out of starter Ryan Myers, senior Julio Siberio gave up two hits and pitched two innings of scoreless ball to get his fourth save of the year.

Siberio entered with a one-run lead and designated hitter Sean Walker greeted him with a deep shot to right field.

“It was a slider away; he was just looking out for a breaking ball,” Siberio said. “I just kind of watched it, nothing went through my head.”

It chased right fielder Antonio Mul