Northwestern (16-16, 5-4 B1G) fell back to .500 over the weekend, dropping two of three games at home to Maryland (18-17, 5-4) despite putting together stellar offensive performances in all three contests. The series loss drops the Wildcats to the middle of the pack in the Big Ten as they’re now tied for sixth place with Maryland and Rutgers.

Pitching doomed the Wildcats in this one as they gave up 42 runs over the course of the three games. Northwestern once again was without Friday night starter Hank Christie.

Here’s how all three games went down:

Friday: L, 13-8

SP: Quinn Lavelle (3-4, 5.36 ERA)

The Wildcats were down 9-1 at one point in this game, but a huge two-out rally in the fifth inning resulted in six NU runs and brought the Cats within two heading into the sixth. The Maryland bats were simply too much though as the Terps rallied off 18 hits on the day and pulled away down the stretch. The free grilled cheese for students was awesome though.

Box Score

Saturday: W, 13-7

SP: Mike Doherty (2-0, 5.31 ERA)

Freshman Mike Doherty tossed 3.1 scoreless innings to kick off Saturday’s doubleheader and Northwestern jumped out to an early five-run lead in the game’s first two innings. Maryland battle back to tie the game in the sixth, but a Shawn Goosenberg two-run double in the seventh and Alex Erro three-run blast put the Wildcats ahead for good. Check out this nifty bat flip from Erro as well.

Nick Paciorek struck out seven batters in 3.0 innings out of the bullpen in addition to walking five and giving up two earned runs.

Box Score

Saturday: L, 12-10

SP: Tommy D’Alise (0-0, 4.86)

Northwestern pitching simply burned out down the stretch in the second game of the doubleheader and a third straight multi-hit/multi-RBI game from Alex Erro wasn’t enough to give the Wildcats a series-clinching win. Sophomore Casey O’Laughlin wrapped up an overall impressive series performance going 2-for-3 at the plate with three RBIs.

Box Score

Series Stats and Notes

• Alex Erro hit 7-for-15 and drove in seven runs during the series. The junior third baseman ranks third on the team with a .323 average while slugging .474 with 12 extra-base hits on the year
• Senior Jack Dunn went 6-for-13 at the plate, moving his season average to a Big Ten leading .383.
• Dunn, who has started every game since arriving in Evanston four years ago, also moved into the No. 15 slot on the NU career hits leaderboard this weekend, per @NUCatsBaseball
• After going 0-for-5 at Milwaukee midweek, freshman Shawn Goosenberg had a solid weekend, tallying at least one hit and RBI in all three games over the weekend. The freshman second baseman also stole three bases in three games
• Freshman pitcher Mike Doherty is gradually evolving into one of Northwestern’s more steady arms. Doherty has given up just one run over his last 16.1 innings pitched

What’s Next?

Northwestern takes on Notre Dame (13-21, 8-10 ACC) Tuesday night in South Bend and will be in Ann Arbor over the weekend to face a Michigan (24-11, 5-3) team ranked third in the conference. Freshman southpaw Parker Hanks (3-1, 3.48 ERA) will make the midweek start for NU. The Wildcats defeated in the Irish 2-0 in their lone contest last season.