On Friday afternoon, Northwestern was riding a three-game winning streak after scoring 15 runs on 18 hits just two days earlier against UIC.
In their next three games against the visiting Boilermakers, the Wildcats could only manage to score nine total in 28 innings.
Purdue (25-10, 12-6 Big Ten) swept Northwestern this past weekend, with wins of 11-3, 3-2 and 8-3 for its ninth win in its past 10 meetings with the ‘Cats. Northwestern, now 13-18-1 and 5-10 in the Big Ten, really struggled to get its bats
going against a Boilermaker staff that found its footing early in the series and never stopped.
Freshman pitcher Jake Rifenburg crafted the strongest stretch of any NU arm in the series on Friday, striking out a career-high six batters in his five innings of work. The left-hander’s efforts, paired with RBIs from Noah Ruiz and Nick Barron, helped build a 3-1 Northwestern lead through three.
Purdue would go on to score three in the fourth to flip the lead in its favor before the Wildcat bullpen surrendered seven runs in the final inning that turned a once-competitive contest into a blowout Boilermaker win in game one.
Saturday proved to bring the biggest gut punch for head coach Ben Greenspan’s crew.
Matt Kouser delivered a solid start for the Wildcats, pitching six innings and striking out five while allowing just one run. Ryan Kucherak crushed his seventh homer of the season to create a four-way tie atop the Wildcats’ home run leaderboard while giving NU a 2-1 lead in the sixth.
With just two outs remaining before Northwestern was able to secure the win, a throwing error allowed Purdue’s Sergio DeCello to score the tying run in the ninth, giving way for Quincy Malbrough’s decisive RBI single in the 10th that put it ahead.
Despite having the bases loaded with only one out in the bottom half of the 10th, NU would exit Rocky and Berenice Miller Park with the loss. Jack Lausch and Ruiz struck out swinging to end the game in agonizing fashion.
Sunday was arguably the roughest of the three games, with four Boilermakers going deep, including CJ Richmond’s two-run shot that extended the Purdue lead to 5-0 in the fifth. Lausch contributed the lone highlight of the day for Northwestern with a homer to center in the eighth, but it was too little, too late in the 8-3 defeat.
The quarterback-turned-center fielder was Northwestern’s best bat of the series, collecting five hits at the plate, including the aforementioned home run in game three and a pair of stolen bases over the weekend. Conversely, plenty of noteworthy ‘Cats struggled, namely Owen McElfatrick managing just one hit in 14 plate appearances and Jackson Freeman going 2-for-13 with three strikeouts. As a team, NU left nine runners on base on Saturday despite its 10 hits.
However, there were some hints of development buried in the disappointing showing.
Rifenburg’s six strikeouts in just his second start showed the foundation of a pitcher capable of competing while in a period of growth. Kouser’s six innings of one-run ball was the kind of start Northwestern’s rotation needs, but an offensive drought like the ‘Cats had this past weekend makes it difficult to walk away with a win, especially with an important stretch of Big Ten play on the horizon.
Northwestern’s third and final matchup against UIC serves as a break before the continuation of a difficult Big Ten slate. The ‘Cats and Flames face off on Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. CT before NU heads to Ann Arbor to take on Michigan in a three-game set starting on Friday, April 17.
