Baseball

For the first time all season, Northwestern is coming out of a weekend series on a winning streak.

The Wildcats (13-24, 4-14 Big Ten) have won four straight — one over local rival Illinois-Chicago and three over Penn State — and have a chance to extend that winning streak to six with two midweek games: one Tuesday against Chicago State (9-32, 4-14 WAC) and another Wednesday against Western Michigan (18-18, 8-8 MAC).

Tuesday’s contest between NU and the Cougars will be the final game of a two-game home-and-home series this spring. The two teams previously played at Cougar Stadium on March 27, with Chicago State picking up the 8-7 victory on a walk-off hit.

Junior shortstop Jack Dunn said the Cats want the bragging rights over their local rivals, and he considers the contest a revenge game.

“I don’t think we will need any more energy or any more reason to play on Tuesday,” Dunn said. “We lost to Chicago State the first time. I’m pretty sure all of our guys are pretty pumped to play them again and get some revenge.”

During that previous game, the Cougars had 12 hits and 1 home run, while NU had 10 hits and 2 round-trippers of its own. Coach Spencer Allen said he expects the game to have a lot of offense, especially with nice weather in the forecast.

“They are an aggressive team; they are going to come out swinging,” Allen said. “I think it is going to be more of an offensive day with the park warming up finally. We want to make sure we put some pressure on them offensively as well.”

For the past few weeks, NU has utilized a bullpenning strategy during its midweek games. In the last three midweek matchups, no pitcher threw more than three innings and the results were promising. The Cats were 2-1 in those three games with only 6 runs and 21 hits allowed.

However, that strategy will need to be altered considering the two games on the schedule this midweek and then a full three-game series at Purdue over the weekend.

“We are going to need some starters to roll a little bit,” Allen said. “I’m pretty excited because when you are playing well you want to keep playing and some other arms may get an opportunity to step up.”

Freshman left-hander Ryan Bader will start against the Cougars and junior righty Danny Katz is slated to start against the Broncos. Bader started last Tuesday against UIC and went three innings.

During this past weekend against the Nittany Lions, NU had two late-inning come-from-behind victories. Sophomore third baseman Charlie Maxwell, who had five extra-base hits over the weekend, said that the team was confident, even when facing late-inning deficits against Penn State.

“There was a feeling in the dugout that we were not going to lose this game,” Maxwell said. “That feeling was part of the reason it did happen. I think that will carry over into this week and this weekend.”

This is the Cats’ second four-game winning streak of the season. They previously won four straight against MacMurray, Judson and Central Michigan twice in early March.

It is also the only week of NU’s season that features two midweek matchups. Dunn said he is looking forward to the extra opportunity to play competitive baseball.

“We want to play games,” Dunn said. “At this point in the season, all of us would rather play a game than an off-day or practice. We are looking forward to it.”

Ryan Wangman contributed reporting.

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