Northwestern
13-14, 3-2
Ohio State
16-15, 2-3
Northwestern Wins Series, Tops Ohio State, 7-2
4/6/2019 4:54:00 PM | Baseball
NU received a boon out of the bullpen in the contest as Ryan Bader tossed 5.0-plus strong innings of relief. In six relief appearances this season, Bader owns a 1.96 ERA (4 ER/18.1 IP), the best relief ERA for a Wildcat this season.
Bader only allowed four hits over his appearance, struck out two, and walked only one. He only needed 54 pitches in the outing, the longest for an NU reliever this year.
The Buckeyes scored first in the game but Ohio State did not capitalize on a bases-loaded situation by only scoring one run in the first inning, coming on a walk.
Northwestern quickly tied it up, playing some small ball in the second inning. NU was able to move Willie Bourbon over to third base after a lead-off walk and he was driven home on a Mike Trautwein safety squeeze.
Bourbon has scored six runs over his last five games.
NU scored again in the third inning on an infield single by Shawn Goosenberg, who has at least one RBI in five out of his last six games. Goosenberg also extended his hitting streak to 11-straight games, the longest hitting streak of the season for Northwestern.
The 'Cats doubled their lead in the fourth inning as Ben Dickey came home on a wild pitch.
Chicago's Big Ten Team went scoreless in the fifth through seventh innings but exploded for three runs in the top of the eighth.
After back-to-back singles to start the inning, Willie Bourbon drove in a run with a no-out grounder to the first baseman.
NU scored their second run of the inning via Ben Dickey's safety squeeze, the second-such maneuver of the game for the Wildcats. Trautwein then hit a clutch double to extend the Wildcat lead to 6-1.
The Buckeyes chimed back and scored one run in the eighth, but Anthony Alepra came out of the bullpen and stemmed any sort of major damage.
NU added one more in the ninth inning as Jack Dunn came home on a Shawn Goosenberg fielder's choice.
Northwestern will play the finale of the series at Ohio State tomorrow at 10:05 a.m. CT. This time has been moved up from 12:05 p.m. due to inclement weather.
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Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Bader, Ryan (1-2)
L: Lonsway, Seth (4-3)
Batting:
2B: Trautwein, Michael 1
RBI: Goosenberg, Shawn 2 ; Bourbon, Willie 1 ; Dickey, Ben 1 ; Trautwein, Michael 2
SH: Dunn, David 1 ; Dickey, Ben 1 ; Trautwein, Michael 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Dunn, Jack 1 ; Erro, Alex 1 ; Goosenberg, Shawn 1 ; Bourbon, Willie 1 ; Dunn, David 1 ; Dickey, Ben 1 ; Kaplan, Leo 1
SB: Goosenberg, Shawn 2 ; Dickey, Ben 1
Batting:
2B: Canzone, Dominic 1
RBI: Dingler, Dillon 1 ; Fishel, Andrew 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Foppe, Kobie 1 ; Pohl, Conner 1
HBP: Cherry, Brady 1
