Being on the wrong end of close games has been a familiar situation for the Wildcats.
On Wednesday, Northwestern trailed by one run heading into the ninth inning against Northern Illinois.
This time, there was a different outcome, and Jake Goebbert made sure of it.
With one out and senior shortstop Tommy Finn on third in the bottom of the ninth, the junior crushed a two-run homer to steal the win from Northern Illinois, 6-5.
With the victory, NU (7-20) picked up its first win of the season when its opponent scored first. After beating Elmhurst, 16-0 on Tuesday, it also heads into its Big Ten weekend series with Minnesota on its first two-game winning streak since a pair of victories over Illinois-Chicago on March 13-14.
“You saw an exhibition of perfection as far as I’m concerned,” coach Paul Stevens said. “With how things went pitching-wise, defensively, and offensively, I couldn’t be more proud of the way this team put things into perspective the last two days.”
Northern Illinois (11-18) jumped out to a 3-0 lead. Junior Matt Diedrich surrendered a home run to Huskies third baseman Jordin Hood. The Huskies followed that blast in the second with a two-run single from freshman right fielder Brett Frantini.
But after a rocky start, Diedrich gave up only one run over the next three innings, while the offense narrowed the lead. Sophomore Chris Lashmet, who went 5-for-5 on Tuesday, hit his second home run of the season in the bottom of the second inning.
With Diedrich settling down, Tony Vercelli narrowed the deficit with a double in the fourth, scoring Lashmet, who reached on an error. Quentin Williams drove in Vercelli on an RBI single, cutting the lead to 4-3. The teams traded runs in the sixth, and NU entered the seventh inning trailing 5-4.
While the Cats have struggled this season in the late innings, today was different. A trio of relief pitchers were able to shut out Northern Illinois over the last three innings.
Sophomore hurler Cole Livermore, who spent last season recovering from a shoulder injury, came in to relieve freshman Michael Jahns in the seventh inning. Livermore and junior reliever David Jensen each pitched one inning down the stretch, without allowing a single baserunner.
“It was great to see Cole back out there,” Finn said. “It was great to see him throw hard, locate the ball in good spots, and hopefully we can start using him more and more as the season goes on.”
The Cats came into crunch time trailing by one and had control of the game in their hands. Finn started off the bottom of the ninth with a double to left field. With the leadoff man in scoring position, freshman second baseman Trevor Stevens executed a sacrifice bunt, moving Finn to third. Goebbert stepped to the plate, drawing Northern Illinois skipper Ed Mathey’s attention to the bullpen.
Mathey brought in junior reliever Dave Reynolds, setting the stage for the walk-off winner. Seemingly calm, Goebbert launched the ball over the fence, sending Finn home and sealing the win.
“We were looking to get a tie, and you know, I just got fortunate and hit it over the fence,” Goebbert said. “I’ve been in the position before, and sometimes you win it, sometimes you lose it. It’s part of the game.
“I just try to keep my head up and do my best in every opportunity I get, and I just got lucky today.”
NU uses midweek games as preparation for its weekend in-conference series. With his team’s slow start in the past, Finn said he believes midweek games will be no less important this season.
“This game is huge for us,” Finn said. “In years past, I think we kind of let up in midweek games, and have taken them lightly. That’s not the case this year – we can’t afford to take anything lightly with our record right now.”
