The Wildcats got plenty of quality innings out of their starting pitchers this weekend without recording a single win, as Illinois swept Northwestern at Rocky Miller Park.
The Cats (14-26, 5-13 Big Ten) received complete-game outings from all three of their starting pitchers, but Francis Brooke, Brandon Magallones and Zach Morton were each saddled with a loss, as the offense scored just six runs all weekend long.
“The pitching staff has been doing a good job of keeping us in games, but we can’t quite make that one play to get us over the hump,” Brooke said.
Friday’s series opener took just 118 minutes and featured two complete games and a late comeback attempt by the Cats. NU’s ninth-inning rally fell short, however, as senior center fielder Hamilton Wise’s marathon at-bat resulted in a meek ground ball to Illinois shortstop Thomas Lindauer. The Fighting Illini won 2-0, behind a sterling performance from Kevin Johnson, who scattered seven hits and struck out nine in nine innings of work.
Saturday’s game lasted a little bit longer, just more than two hours, and featured several more runs, as well as another late rally by NU with much the same result.
After several close calls earlier this season, Magallones finally tossed his first complete game, surrendering seven hits and five earned runs. After allowing three earned runs on 47 pitches over the first three innings, it didn’t seem like the freshman right-hander would last very long. From the fourth inning on, however, he was very efficient, throwing no more than 13 pitches in any frame.
Still, it appeared the Cats stood little chance of coming back from an early 5-0 deficit the way John Kravetz was pitching. They had just six hits through the first six innings, but matched that total in the seventh inning alone.
Junior designated hitter Colby Everett capped off the Cats’ scoring with a deep fly to right field that brought the Cats within a run. But senior catcher Geoff Rowan quickly fell behind 0-2 with runners on second and third, and hit a weak ground ball to third base that ended NU’s threat. The Cats would fail to put a runner on base for the rest of the game, as Ronnie Muck pitched three golden innings for the Fighting Illini.
NU jumped out to its first lead of the series on Sunday when Everett slashed a base hit down the left-field line and freshman right fielder Walker Moses drove him in with a hard line drive to right field. The Cats added to their lead in the bottom of the third on a soft line drive single by sophomore Kyle Ruchim which brought home a run.
That spelled the end of Drasen Johnson’s day, after just 48 pitches, and with runners on first and second and only one out, Matt Milroy made sure NU would score no more. After falling behind Everett 3-0, Milroy induced him into a short fly ball to right field, and then he caught Rowan looking on an inside pitch. Milroy would dazzle for the rest of the afternoon, striking out 11 batters over six and two-thirds innings.
The Fighting Illini slowly staged their comeback, striking for one run in the top of the fourth, when junior left fielder Jack Havey couldn’t quite get to Jordan Parr’s deep double into the left-center field gap. They tied the score in the top of the sixth on three seeing-eye singles, but Morton got out of a bases-loaded jam by forcing Davis Hendrickson into a tailor made double play.
Bad luck continued to befall the Cats in the top of the eighth as Willie Argo’s leadoff hit barely made it over a leaping Everett and Justin Parr’s chopper found the hole between Everett and senior first baseman Paul Snieder. With runners on first and third, Brandon Hohl drove Argo home with a deep fly ball to the left-field warning track.
“That ball was hit well,” Morton said. “That was one I should have kept down more, but luckily (the wind) was blowing in so they only got one on that play.”
Morton kept NU within a run by retiring the last five hitters he faced, but was less successful in the batter’s box, popping up with the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the ninth before Snieder was caught looking at strike three to end the series for NU.
“I’ll take Morton and Snieder at the plate any day of the week and it just wasn’t meant to be for them today, ” coach Paul Stevens said. “(Milroy) was throwing the heck out of the ball, and his slider is electric and he just froze Paul. Paul had two really good swings early in the count and that ball just flat out was nasty as nasty can be and it froze him.”
With the Cats now 12 games under .500 and four and a half games out of Big Ten Tournament contention, Brooke said that they are mainly playing for pride from this point on. NU will look to pick up some momentum against Northern Illinois on Tuesday and Oakland on Wednesday, before traveling east for a three-game series at Ohio State.
“It’s pretty much playing for pride at this point. We don’t really have much chance of making the Tournament, if any,” Brooke said. “So, the biggest thing is to play like we’re capable of playing. We don’t think we’re the worst team in the Big Ten by any stretch. It would be nice if we could start proving that.”
