Northwestern comes up short late, coughs up series finale against Butler, 11-10
Northwestern and Butler traded punches all afternoon long at the plate, as the capper of the three-way, four-game weekend series between Northwestern, Southern Illinois and Butler came down to who could be the last team to counter after taking a shot to the mouth.
That team just so happened to be Butler Sunday afternoon.
Northwestern got on the board first, courtesy of a Jay Beshears RBI single that followed an Ethan O'Donnell double down the right field line to give the 'Cats a 1-0 lead to round out the bottom of the first.
From there on out, both teams struggled on the mound as nine runs were scored between the two teams in the second.
The Bulldogs' Ryan O'Halloran and James Gargano led off the top of the second with back-to-back singles off of 'Cats starting pitcher Kellen Pate. After striking out Kollyn All, Pate balked O'Halloran and Gargano into scoring position at second and third.
Billy Wurch followed the balk by hitting a double to left field, which plated O'Halloran and Gargano in the process, giving Butler the lead, 2-1.
Wurch advanced to third on a groundout before lead off hitter Travis Holt laced the Bulldogs' second double of the inning to left center, scoring Wurch. Aaron Steinhart followed Holt with a 2-run home run to expand Butler's lead to 5-1.
Northwestern opened up their half of the second with Vincent Bianchina drawing a lead off hit-by-pitch, followed by Luke Tanner singling down the left field line and Tony Livermore also being hit by a pitch with one out.
O'Donnell drove in Bianchina and Tanner with a 2-out double, then Anthony Calarco followed O'Donnell with a double of his own to drive in Livermore and O'Donnell to tie the ballgame 5-5.
Not to be outdone, Jay Beshears cranked a 2-run home run to left field the following at-bat to give Northwestern a brief 7-5 lead.
O'Halloran hit a leadoff double in the top of the third to chase Pate from the mound. Pate finished his day with 2 innings pitched and having given up 6 earned runs on 7 hits and one walk for the 'Cats.
Jacob Scharm came in to relieve Pate and found about just as little success as Northwestern's starting pitcher right off the bat.
Scharm sandwiched a strikeout of All with a Gargano walk and a Wurch hit-by-pitch to load the bases. Scharm then walked Nick Ortega to score a run for the Bulldogs with one out. A JC Santini throwing error down to second the next at-bat allowed Wurch to score and tie the game at 7-7.
Holt--who was at the plate during the throwing error--followed it up with a RBI single to score Ortega and give the Bulldogs the lead, 8-7. Butler scored their final run of the inning by executing a double steal of second and home, pushing their lead to 9-7.
Butler's two-run lead was just as short-lived as Northwestern's earlier in the game, as Anthony Calarco tied the game up on a 2-run shot of his own in the bottom of the fourth to knot the game at 9-9 going into the fifth inning.
Both the Bulldog's and 'Cats pitchers began to settle in on the mound, as neither team surrendered a run over the next 4 1/2 innings. Scharm pitched a scoreless fifth and sixth inning as Grant Comstock came on to pitch a scoreless seventh and eighth.
The 'Cats squeezed across another run with two outs in the bottom of the eighth.
Andrew "Drewby" Pinkston singled on a 1-2 count with 1 out right before Tanner collected his third hit of the early evening; a double that put runners at second and third.
Butler pitcher Drew Drees (Yes, Drees with a "D") worked a strikeout of Tony Livermore before a passed ball on a pitch to JC Santini allowed Pinkston to scamper home from third to give Northwestern a 10-9 lead going into the ninth.
The Bulldogs rallied with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, as Gargano hit his second double of the game on a 2-2 pitch--what could have been the final strike of the game--before All took a 3-1 pitch over the wall in left field to bring the game to what would be the deciding score, 11-10 in favor of Butler.
Patrick Herrera singled with two outs to give the 'Cats some hope in the bottom of the ninth, but pinch hitter Ruben Fontes popped out to short to end the game and deliver Northwestern its first loss in 8 contests.
Northwestern ends up taking 3 out of 4 games on the weekend, moving their overall record to 9-11 before opening up conference play at Indiana on Friday, April 1st.