Northwestern ended its season over the weekend in an at-home series against Rutgers, dropping its final series of the year with one win and two losses.
The Wildcats (21-30-1, 8-22 Big Ten) lost the series opener Thursday 8-5 before beating the Scarlet Knights (26-28, 13-17 Big Ten) 7-6 on Friday. Rutgers clinched the series with a 15-9 victory Saturday, when NU celebrated Senior Day.
Graduate student left-handed pitcher Ryan Weaver made his final collegiate start Thursday. He pitched six innings, allowing eight hits and two runs with two strikeouts. Graduate student second baseman Noah Ruiz got the ’Cats on the board first, bringing senior center fielder Jack Lausch home with a sacrifice fly in the first inning.
Rutgers scored its first run in the fourth inning, but NU added two runs in the bottom of the frame on a single from sophomore left fielder Logan de Groot. Junior right fielder Jackson Freeman extended the ’Cats’ lead to 4-1 in the fifth inning with a sacrifice bunt.
The Scarlet Knights scored their second run off Weaver in the sixth inning, before NU switched to freshman left-handed pitcher Jake Rifenburg in the seventh. Rutgers scored six runs in the seventh inning, three unearned to Rifenburg after a fielding error from junior shortstop Ryan Kucherak. Rifenburg pitched 0.1 innings, allowing four hits and three earned runs while junior right-handed pitcher Garrett Shearer finished the inning.
Kucherak drove in Lausch on an RBI-groundout in the bottom of the ninth inning to add another run, but the Scarlet Knights held on for a 8-5 win.
The ’Cats struck out 11 times Thursday and left nine runners on base. They also hit 2-for-10 with two outs, compared to Rutgers’s 4-for-12.
Sophomore right-handed pitcher Matt Kouser started Friday’s contest. He made it through the first two innings scoreless, throwing just 17 pitches before surrendering three solo home runs within four batters in the third inning.
NU’s offense responded with four hits in the third inning, with freshman first baseman Nick Barron driving in a run on an RBI single to cut the deficit to 3-1. Freeman tied the game with a two-run home run in the fourth inning, the 26th of his career which brought him into a tie for eighth place on NU’s all-time leaderboard.
Kouser finished the game pitching five innings with four strikeouts, six hits and three runs allowed. Senior left-handed pitcher Drew Dickson pitched the next two innings. He allowed two runs in the sixth, including a home run to Rutgers right fielder Jack Sweeney. The ’Cats scored three runs in the bottom of the inning from senior third baseman Owen McElfatrick’s two-RBI double and senior Marty Kaplan’s RBI groundout.
McElfatrick played his 200th game for NU on Saturday after recording 200 career hits Friday, when he went 3-for-5 with two RBIs and a double. The senior infielder finished his career second-all time in home runs for the ’Cats with 35.
Sweeney hit an inside-the-park home run in the seventh inning, tying the game 6-6. Barron hit a leadoff home run in the bottom of the inning to give NU a 7-6 lead it would not surrender. Rifenburg pitched the final two innings, striking out two batters and allowing one hit to earn his second save of the season.
On Saturday, Graduate student right-handed pitcher Sam Hliboki, one of ten players celebrated for Senior Day, started the game by giving up one run in the first inning. This was followed by consecutive three up, three down innings.
Rutgers scored 10 runs over the next four innings, including a five-run fifth inning. The Scarlet Knights had 18 hits Saturday, the team’s most of the weekend, from 11 different batters.
Graduate student left-handed pitcher Charlie Kutz, a Middlebury College transfer, made his first relief appearance for the ’Cats during the seventh inning. He pitched 0.2 innings with a strikeout, one hit and no runs allowed.
Trailing 11-2 in the eighth inning, Lausch spurred a five-run inning for the ’Cats with a solo home run to right field, his 15th of the season.
Leading off the bottom of the ninth inning in his last collegiate at-bat, Lausch launched his second home run of the day. Saturday was his first multi-homer game of the year. His 16th homer this year tied him for second-most in a single-season in NU history. He also finished the regular season tied for seventh in the Big Ten in home runs.
Barron tacked on NU’s final run with an RBI double, scoring Ruiz. The late-scoring rally was not enough to overcome the early deficit, as the ’Cats fell 15-9 to Rutgers.
Coach Ben Greenspan guided the ’Cats to a 25-27 record in his second season in 2025 — the team’s best record since 2017 — but was unable to build off that in his third year with the program. NU won more than 20 games for the second time in the 2020s, but took a step back in the win-loss column for the first time since 2023.
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