Baseball: Northwestern stuns UIC in extras, notches 2-1 win

Revenge is a dish that is best served cold.

It was fitting that Northwestern baseball fans got treated to a battle of Chicago on the diamond during the first day of the spring quarter.

Riding the momentum of a conference series victory against Maryland, Northwestern (13-13, 5-4 B1G) trekked back into familiar territory, making the trip into the city to face the University of Illinois Chicago (6-21, 2-4 MVC) in a Tuesday afternoon rematch. The ‘Cats were looking to avenge a 5-2 loss to UIC on March 12.

Both teams relied heavily on their bullpens. Northwestern burned four arms in the contest, while UIC utilized six.

Graduate student Crawford Wade started for the Wildcats on the mound, pitching two innings of scoreless ball to get Northwestern on the right foot. Junior Jack Lausch kicked off scoring on the night, driving in junior Trent Liolios on a groundout to second to give Northwestern an early 1-0 lead at the bottom of the second. Lausch would notch a hit later on in the top of the sixth — a great sign from the center fielder, who has seen a great deal of trouble with pitch selection at the plate this season.

The game became a pitcher’s duel between both teams starting in the third inning. Northwestern head coach Ben Greenspan brought junior Amar Tsengeg out of the bullpen for the second straight game and he pitched five innings of no-hit ball, walking only one batter while striking out four.

UIC pulled even in the bottom of the eighth: a leadoff hit from AJ Taylor, followed by a sacrifice bunt by James Harris and an infield single from Vidal Colon set up an RBI groundout, courtesy of DJ Butler.

And nine frames just wasn’t enough. A 10th was needed to settle the score. And who settled that score? None other than Liolios, who smoked a homer down the right-field line to put NU ahead late. Reliever Sam Hliboki locked down the win for Northwestern shortly after, stranding the game-tying run on second base to pick up his second win of the season.

For the fourth straight game, Northwestern’s lineup has posted at least six hits in a contest. This is the seventh occurrence in their past eight games — a promising sign from a squad that ranked dead last in the conference in numerous hitting categories in 2024.

Northwestern returns home to Rocky and Berenice Miller Park to open up a three-game set with Iowa from Apr. 4-6. The home series precedes a short road trip, in which the ‘Cats will travel to South Bend to face Notre Dame, and to East Lansing to battle Michigan State.