WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Northwestern went into Purdue and did what it has done all conference season this past weekend.
The Wildcats split the four games with the Boilermakers, giving them a series tie or win with every Big Ten team they’ve faced this year.
But it wasn’t enough to hold their spot at the top of the conference, a position NU has held since the beginning of April.
Michigan’s sweep of Iowa gave the Wolverines the regular season Big Ten championship, pushing the Cats (25-31, 21-11 Big Ten) to No. 2.
Michigan’s 4-1 win over the Hawkeyes on Saturday night clinched the championship.
“I’m not going to tell you I didn’t think some guys were disappointed,” coach Paul Stevens said. “We understood that after Friday we were going to need some help.”
Purdue (30-25, 15-17) won Friday’s opener 11-3, putting the Cats a game in the hole.
NU evened the series the next day as they often have this year: behind the left arm of junior Dan Brauer.
After giving up a run and two hits in the first inning, Brauer scattered one run and eight hits over the next six.
The Cats scored six runs over the last four innings for the 6-2 win, with centerfielder Max Mann painfully putting the Cats ahead in the fifth inning.
With the bases loaded and a 1-2 count, Purdue pitcher Trae Dauby ran an 87-mph fastball inside on Mann and hit him under the nose.
“When I saw it coming, I had no time to get out of the way,” he said. “Then I just remember being down on the ground.”
Mann walked off the field but didn’t return.
“My first thought was that we scored,” he said. “The bases were loaded, and it was better than a strikeout.”
The Cats lost the second game of the doubleheader 3-0. Starter George Kontos gave up all three runs and four of the six hits he surrendered in the second inning.
Kontos said he needs to be calmer to minimize big innings early in games.
“Whenever I give up a couple of runs in an inning, it’s usually because I’m working too fast,” he said.
NU left seven runners on base during the game, including three in scoring position.
After Kontos got out of a one-out, bases-loaded jam in the third inning, the Cats loaded the bases with nobody out in the fourth.
Three strikeouts later the threat was over.
“We’ve lived and died on timely hitting,” Stevens said. “We had our chances.”
The team has scored a combined two runs in Kontos’ last three starts.
With second place secured, the Cats jumped to an 8-2 lead Sunday and held on for a 14-9 win.
Purdue cut the lead to 11-8 with a four-run sixth inning, but NU answered in the seventh with an Antonio Mul
