Northwestern finally found a deficit it couldn’t come back from Sunday.
After digging their way out of a 14-7 hole, the Wildcats (8-16, 1-2 Big Ten) were forced to watch the Buckeyes (10-11, 2-1) walk off with a 15-14 victory.
“It’s definitely a bad feeling,” sophomore Jack Havey said.
NU jumped out to a 2-0 lead in Sunday’s contest but quickly saw that lead evaporate as junior pitcher Francis Brooke gave up two runs in the first inning and gave up hits to the first three batters he faced in the second. He was pulled after recording just three outs.
Yet no matter how much the Cats fell behind, they were never out of it. Down four runs, Sneider drew NU within 9-7 with a two-run home run in the top of the sixth. But after the Buckeyes put up five runs in the bottom of the sixth to take a 14-7 lead, it appeared the Cats might have finally fallen behind by too much.
Despite a three-run seventh inning, NU trailed 14-10 entering the ninth. The Cats were able to string together a series of hits and get the tying run up to the plate with two outs.
“Last year and even this year, we’ve been in a lot of games where we have to battle back,” Havey said. “It doesn’t matter what the scoreboard says.”
Up to the plate strode Havey, a pitcher and first baseman,, whose biggest contribution came at the plate as he hit a bomb to left field to tie the contest at 14.
Yet as good as Havey and Sneider were at the plate, combining to drive in seven of NU’s 14 runs, it was their one failure that led to the Cats’ defeat.
On the final play of the game, with a runner on first and no outs, Buckeyes’ center fielder Tim Wetzel bunted the ball down the first-base line. Sneider picked the ball up and sailed a high throw to first base. Havey caught it but as he attempted to make the tag, the ball was jarred loose and rolled into right field., allowing the winning run to score from first.
“It was a bad throw,” Sneider said. “That’s pretty much all there is to it.”
In the series opener, NU trailed 1-0 entering the seventh inning. After scoring just two runs in their previous 23 innings, the Cats equaled that total with two in the top of the seventh.
Yet the lead was short-lived. Ohio State came back, winning 7-2.
Sophomore hurler Luke Farrell gave up all six runs in his last two innings, yet Stevens had no regrets about leaving Farrell in.
“I don’t know how it looks on the box score, or what anybody heard or what radio had to say,” Stevens said. “But at the end of the day there wasn’t one single ball that was hit out of the infield off Luke Farrell,”
NU was boosted Saturday by some gritty work on the mound. Starting pitcher Dan Tyson and junior reliever Michael Jahns allowed only one earned run over 7.1 innings of work as NU earned the 7-3 win.
While the Cats weren’t able to get the series win, they left their coach with positives to look back on.
“My kids never gave up, that’s something that I’m very proud of,” Stevens said. “I like the team atmosphere that everybody is behind each other.”
The key is not to fall behind by seven runs.
“We have a lot of things we can go back on and say if this that or the other had happened we would have been in a different position, up seven,” Stevens said.
