For the past few weeks, the Husker baseball team's bats have been in a slumber, and that trend continued Saturday in Evanston, Illinois, as Northwestern took the series opener 4-2.Â
The Huskers (23-17, 12-7 Big Ten) threatened in the first inning, loading the bases with just one out, but Wildcat starter Ryan Bader escaped the jam and proceeded to dominate Nebraska the rest of the way.Â
"You have to take advantage of your opportunities when you don't have many," Husker coach Darin Erstad said on the postgame radio show.Â
At one point in the middle innings, Bader retired 14 of 15 hitters and 11 in a row on his way to seven shutout innings.Â
The Huskers showed some fight in the final frame, as Mojo Hagge placed a double down the left-field line to score a run and give NU a chance to tie the game. A wild pitch made it 4-2, then Nick Paciorek closed the door on NU, striking out two to complete the save.
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"We were plenty capable of winning that game today," Erstad said.
Bader's counterpart, NU starter Matt Waldron, also went seven innings on the day, allowing four runs on five hits while striking out five. Waldron was in command of his stuff and often just one pitch away from limiting the damage, but all four runs came with two outs in an inning.Â
"Matt gave us a chance to win and that’s all we ask," Erstad said. "Everything gets magnified when you’re not scoring. We almost have to play perfect with the way the offense is right now."
Northwestern (20-22, 7-9) jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the third inning on a two-out RBI single by Jack Dunn, then added two more in the fifth with back-to-back two-out base knocks.Â
The Wildcats sealed the victory with a Jack Kelly home run, his first of the season, in the seventh inning.Â
The Huskers had three hits in the first two innings, and only two in the final seven. Only twice did the leadoff batter reach base for Nebraska, and the Huskers stranded six runners on base.Â
"Big boy stuff. People are going to say 'It’s all right and hey, we can get them tomorrow.' We are past that point. We are far enough into the season," Erstad said.
Nate Fisher will get the start for the Huskers in Game 2 of the series on Sunday at 1 p.m. The final game of the series is set for Monday at 3:30 p.m.