Northwestern
13-22, 3-6
Illinois
14-19, 3-6
Northwestern's Late Surge Comes Up Short at Illinois
4/16/2017 5:19:00 PM | Baseball
Northwestern (13-22, 3-6 B1G) and Illinois (14-19, 3-6 B1G) each 13 hits in the high-scoring affair. The Wildcats outscored the Illini, 22-18, in the series.
Seven different Wildcats recorded hits in the contest, including five players with multi-hit games: Joe Hoscheit (3), Alex Erro (2), Matt Hopfner (2), Connor Lind (2) and Jack Claeys (2). Hoscheit had a double and a hoem run in his three-hit performance, while Lind drove in a career-high four runs on this two hits.
Matt Gannon made his seventh start of the season and kept the Illini in check early, throwing a pair of scoreless innings before Illinois scored a pair of runs on two hits in the bottom of the third to take a 2-0 lead.
Hoscheit got the Wildcats on the board in the top of the fourth with a solo home run to left field. It was his second home run of the weekend and fourth of the season.
Illinois' Jack Yalowitz got a run back for the Illini with a solo shot to right field in the bottom of the fifth to make the score 3-1.
The Wildcats made some noise in the top of the sixth. With Hopfner on first and two outs, Claeys doubled through the left side to score Hopfner all the way from first. Lind smoked a ball to the left side in the ensuing at-bat to score Claeys and tie the game at 3-3.
The tie would not last long as Illinois opened the game up by scoring five runs on six hits in the bottom of the sixth to take an 8-3 lead, before adding two insurance runs in the bottom of the seventh to make it 10-3.
Northwestern best offensive inning came in the top of the eighth when the #B1GCats struck for four runs on four hits. Hoscheit walked to leadoff the inning and Hopfner and Claeys reached on back-to-back singles to bring up Lind with the bases loaded. The Wildcats' third baseman roped a bases-clearing, three-RBI double to right center to cut into the Illini's lead, 10-6. Lind would eventually come around to score to make it a three-run game, 10-7.
The Wildcats put a scare into Illinois in the top of the ninth when Hoscheit and Hopfner had back-to-back doubles to make it 10-8 with one away, but that is as close as Northwestern's rally would come to catching the Illini.
Northwestern returns to action on Tuesday, April 18, for a 3:30 p.m. CT contest against Milwaukee at Miller Park.
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Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Schmitt, Ryan (2-1)
L: Bordignon, Tommy (1-4)
S: Gerber, Joey (5)
Batting:
2B: Hoscheit, Joe 1 ; Hopfner, Matt 1 ; Claeys, Jack 1 ; Lind, Connor 1
HR: Hoscheit, Joe 1
RBI: Hoscheit, Joe 1 ; Hopfner, Matt 1 ; Claeys, Jack 1 ; Lind, Connor 4
Base Running:
RUNS: Hoscheit, Joe 3 ; Hopfner, Matt 2 ; Claeys, Jack 2 ; Lind, Connor 1
SB: Bourbon, Willie 1
HBP: Claeys, Jack 1
Batting:
2B: Yalowitz, Jack 1 ; Hammond, Trent 1
3B: Skonieczny, Mark 1
HR: Yalowitz, Jack 1
RBI: Yalowitz, Jack 4 ; Troike, Ben 1 ; McInerney, Pat 1 ; Massey, Michael 2 ; Turchin, Doran 1 ; Hammond, Trent 1
SF: McInerney, Pat 1 ; Hammond, Trent 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Yalowitz, Jack 2 ; McInerney, Pat 1 ; Skonieczny, Mark 1 ; Turchin, Doran 2 ; Rowbottom, Dan 3 ; Hammond, Trent 1
SB: Troike, Ben 1 ; McInerney, Pat 1 ; Turchin, Doran 1
