Baseball

A Jack Mitchell field goal couldn’t save Northwestern this time, as the Wildcats’ trip to South Bend, Indiana, ended in a narrow, 1-run loss to Notre Dame on Tuesday.

NU (17-26, 6-9 Big Ten) couldn’t contain the Fighting Irish’s (23-23) powerful middle of the lineup, which carried the hosts to a 3-2 victory. The Cats have now dropped three of their last four games and will have to win out the season to finish the year .500. Coach Spencer Allen said the team fell behind early, and that was the difference.

“It was a clean game today,” Allen said. “The difference was they got up early, and we had a lot of zeroes in the middle of the game. We just needed to put more pressure on them.”

Senior pitcher Josh Davis turned in a solid six-inning start, allowing three runs on six hits. He also struck out six batters and only conceded one walk in the contest.

But Davis couldn’t get the run support necessary to come away with the win, as NU’s bats failed to generate much behind him, finishing with only five hits. Senior outfielder Joe Hoscheit was the most productive hitter for the Cats on Tuesday, as the veteran went 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI on the day.

“We just didn’t have as competitive at-bats as we wanted to early,” Hoscheit said. “Our hitting just wasn’t there today. We had a chance at the end, but unfortunately we weren’t able to take advantage of it.”

Davis ran into trouble right away in the first, giving up two runs on a homer and an RBI triple. But things took a turn for the worse in the third inning, as Davis surrendered his second home run of the game and his fourth of the year, giving the Fighting Irish a 3-1 lead.

For Davis, his issues from throughout the year persisted in the contest. The senior had only given up 12 extra base hits coming into Tuesday’s game, but Notre Dame got under his skin, recording three extra base hits — including the two dingers on the day.

“I was able to make good pitches, and I had good defense behind me,” Davis said. “There were just two pitches I regret and we could’ve won 2-1, but that’s baseball.”

NU picked up a quick first run in the first inning off Notre Dame starter Charlie Vorsheck, but that was the only run the Cats could tally in Vorsheck’s six innings.

Tuesday’s game had a silver lining, though.

After allowing a combined 15 runs to Michigan State across two NU losses, the Cats bullpen bounced back, tossing two scoreless innings to prevent the Fighting Irish from running away with it.

“It was definitely encouraging,” Allen said. “J.R. Reimer came in and threw really, really well. We’re looking forward to him helping us moving forward.”

Hoscheit came through with a clutch RBI single in the eighth to score freshman infielder Alex Erro, but it wasn’t enough as the Cats came up one run short.

Despite the loss, Allen was encouraged by the team’s effort after its blowout losses to Michigan Stage over the weekend.

“The guy’s definitely answered the call,” Allen said. “I feel like if we continue to play like this consistently moving forward we’ll be on the right side of it more often than not.”

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Twitter: @joe_f_wilkinson