Managing to plate one more run, let alone salvage one hit, was a difficult task for Northwestern this past weekend.
First, the Wildcats (5-20, 1-4 Big Ten) were victims of a 2-0 no-hitter the first game of a doubleheader on Saturday against Michigan State. They couldn’t recover in the second game, losing 9-4.
On Sunday, the Cats were on the wrong side of a one-run game yet again, falling 6-5 to the Spartans for the weekend sweep.
“Obviously we were disappointed, because Michigan State isn’t that impressive of a team,” sophomore third baseman Chris Lashmet said. “But we tried our best and didn’t really catch any breaks, which has kind of been the story for our team all year. What matters is we tried our hardest, hustled, and can’t ask more from the team.”
Even though the final box score showed the Cats as hitless, it wasn’t for a lack of opportunities.
The Spartans capitalized in the sixth inning when sophomore pitcher Eric Jokisch was called for a balk. Jokisch was penalized after attempting to pick off a base-runner for what should have been the third out. The Spartans took advantage of the second chance by homering later in the inning to take a 2-0 lead.
NU had a chance for its first hit in the seventh inning, but a diving stop by the Michigan State second baseman kept NU hitless.
Sophomore outfielder Kenneth Avila also hit a ball to left field that, according to Lashmet, “would have been a home run on any other day, but the wind was blowing out to the left, so it was a foul ball.”
In the second game of the doubleheader, the Cats were down 5-4, heading into the eighth inning. NU advanced a runner to third on a wild pitch but could not score the tying run. Junior pitcher Joe Muraski had kept the Cats within reach for the majority of the game, but NU’s bad luck came into play yet again in the eighth.
With two outs and two runners on base, Muraski induced what should have been an inning-ending fly ball, but the ball was lost in the sun, dropping to pad the Spartans lead. Blowing a marginal lead or letting a game get out of hand in the late innings has doomed the Cats to date this season.
“Baseball is a game of statistics, and we’re a good hitting team, but we’ve just been cold in the late innings,” Lashmet said. “And that will change. We just have to find it within it ourselves and put up more runs in the seventh, eighth, and ninth innings which we have been struggling with. We need to shut down the other team in the late innings when we have a lead.”
The Cats blew a chance to escape the weekend with a win when they let a 5-3 lead go to waste Sunday. Two errors by NU in the seventh inning allowed the Spartans to tie the ballgame. A two-out single in the bottom of the ninth inning gave Michigan State the come-from-behind victory.
The loss was the ninth one-run game the Cats have been involved in this season, seven of which they lost. When it comes to one-run games, Jokisch and the pitching staff must compensate for their offense’s lack of production.
“Coach (Gabe) Ribas told me earlier this season that I have to treat the close games as if my offense were to give me three runs, (and if they do) then we should win the ball game,” Jokisch said. “All I can do is shut down the other team, and I’ve done all right with it. But against Purdue, I gave up 4 runs, our offense got three, and that’s all on me. We just have to wait for the offense to put some runs on the board.”
NU will look to recoup its winning ways against Elmhurst College at home today to regain some momentum for the rest of the Big Ten season.
“We’re going to try to make a statement against Elmhurst,” Lashmet said. “We want to show them that we’re here to play and that getting swept last weekend isn’t affecting us emotionally.”
