Unable to capitalize at the plate, 'Cats lose 11-6 to Fighting Illini
Northwestern took the field Saturday hoping to even the series against Illinois after their 7-6 defeat the night prior on a walk-off single.
While the 'Cats collected 14 hits on the day, coming up short with runners in scoring position and a pair of costly errors in the field led to a game more lopsided than the final score indicated.
"It comes down to that we just couldn't get that big hit with two outs or runners in scoring position," said Northwestern interim head coach Josh Reynolds after the game. "Credit to [Illinois] for making some plays...making it a little bit tougher on us, but when you flip it to them they were able to do that."
Northwestern left the bases loaded several times throughout the game, including with no outs in the third, and two outs in the seventh and eighth innings. The 'Cats left 14 men on base overall.
On the opposite side of the diamond, Cam McDonald and Illinois capitalized on their offensive opportunities, going 6-15 with a double and 9 RBIs with runners in scoring position. McDonald was perfect at the plate, going 5-5 with a double, HR and 5 RBIs.
Stephen Hrustich and Patrick Herrera hit home runs for Northwestern in a losing effort. Hrustich hit a solo shot to lead off the sixth inning, his sixth (6) on the year, while Herrera hit a 2-run opposite field homer in the ninth inning, his first (1) of the season.
Hrustich's home run made it a 5-3 ballgame in favor of Illinois before Ethan O'Donnell hit an RBI single back up the middle to shorten the Illini's lead to just one run.
"When you're up, you're never up by enough and when you're down, you're never down by too many," said Hrustich after the game. "I just feel like we had some chances today that we just didn't convert and in the future it just has to be done."
Illinois went on to put three more runs on the scoreboard in the bottom half of the sixth and the Wildcats would never recover.
Michael Farinelli threw 5 2/3 innings, giving up 6 earned runs on 9 hits and 2 walks, while striking out four batters.
Northwestern will face the Fighting Illini in the series finalé tomorrow at 1 P.M. CST with Grant Comstock taking the mound for the 'Cats.
"Tomorrow's a big day. Good teams don't get swept that make the Big Ten tournament," Reynolds said. "We gotta make sure we put these behind us and find a way to fight, scrap, claw--whatever we have to do to get that one win."