On Tuesday against Valparaiso, the Wildcats learned that there is still work to be done.
After giving up 34 runs in three games this weekend against Illinois, Northwestern was hoping to get its pitching back on track.
Fourteen runs, 12 hits and five walks later, the Cats are back to the drawing board, falling 14-2 at U.S. Steel Yard in Gary, Ind.
“We just came out flat,” senior shortstop Tommy Finn said. “And there’s really no excuse for that.”
Playing in its second neutral site game at a professional stadium, NU (12-31) had the confidence of a 5-1 win over Notre Dame at U.S. Cellular Field in mid-April.
Against the Fighting Irish, the Cats took the early lead. But at the home of the Independent League Gary SouthShore RailCats, it was a completely different story.
The Crusaders got off to a quick start against Cats junior Matt Diedrich. Valparaiso (24-20) shelled Diedrich for five hits and eight earned runs in just one and one-third innings of work.
Diedrich’s replacement, senior Brian Morgan, got NU out of that jam. But the damage was done, as the Cats finished the second inning trailing, 11-0. Valparaiso plated nine of those runs in that wild inning, which featured two errors, one home run and one wild pitch that led to another run.
“It was a rough inning,” coach Paul Stevens said of the 25-minute inning in which 14 Crusaders came to the plate. “We just didn’t get out there that inning and that just threw a different spin on the entire night.”
Morgan lasted through the fifth, surrendering five earned runs on seven hits in three and two-thirds innings. The bullpen settled down after his departure, throwing three scoreless innings – including two from freshman Paul Snieder who went 1-for-3 at the plate, while playing at first base.
But the Cats four hurlers were no match for the Crusaders’ one. Valparaiso fifth-year senior John Snelten shut down the Cats, tossing the first complete game of his career. He scattered five hits, striking out eight and walking none.
NU scored its only runs of the game in the third inning on a solo home run by freshman Quentin Williams and a sacrifice fly by sophomore third baseman Chris Lashmet.
Lashmet said Snelten kept NU’s hitters out of rhythm throughout the game.
“He threw a lot of strikes,” sophomore third baseman Chris Lashmet said. “He mixed it up pretty well and he tried to keep us off balance, so he did a good job in that respect.”
With the loss against Valparaiso, NU has lost seven of its last eight games. With six more Big Ten contests, the Cats are currently 10th in the conference with a 3-13 record and the players have different outlooks on how they should mentally prepare.
“We kinda need to take the attitude where we got nothing to lose,” Lashmet said. “And why not leave it all on the field.”
Finn is taking a different mindset into the final seven games before the conclusion of the regular season.
“I want to go out this weekend and take things three games at a time instead of the cliché one game at a time,” he said. “I’m trying to look at the big picture and go home with the sweep. The main thing is that we keep going out and playing each game hard and having fun.”
