Baseball: Wildcats take weekend series against Gophers

Following a strong performance against Michigan State, Northwestern traveled to Minneapolis and defeated the Minnesota Golden Gophers in a three-game series to move to 7-4 on the young season. The Wildcats won the first two games of the series, which took place at US Bank Stadium, but dropped the third in their attempt to accomplish a sweep.

Northwestern prevailed 4-3 in the first game behind back-to-back solo home runs in the eighth inning by Anthony Calarco and Shawn Goosenberg, who hit his second consecutive game-winning home run.

The ‘Cats struck first, scoring two runs in the bottom of the first. Mike Doherty had a quality start, going six innings and giving up two earned runs. Quinn Lavelle earned the win in two innings of relief, and Coby Moe went 1-2-3 in the ninth to earn his second save of the season, tying him for fourth among Big Ten closers.

In the second game, Northwestern staged an impressive comeback rally in the bottom of the seventh inning en route to a 10-3 victory. Michael Trautwein led the team with a two-run home run and three RBI, and Calarco went 3-4 at the plate. Tyler Uberstine delivered yet another strong outing, going seven innings while striking out seven and allowing three runs to bring his ERA to 3.86.

In the final game of the three-game set, Trautwein continued his hot streak with a two-run blast in the fifth inning, but it wasn’t enough to withstand the pitching staff’s poor performance. Eight NU pitchers combined to allow ten walks, and Jack Sauser, who faced four batters and gave up two runs on a pair of walks and a hit, picked up the loss.

The Wildcats now find themselves fourth in the Big Ten standings and will look to continue their strong start when they take on Illinois this weekend in Champaign.