Ryan Anetsberger went 2-5, drove in three runs and extended his hitting streak to 12 games as Illinois State defeated Northwestern 9-8 Tuesday afternoon at Rocky Miller Park in Evanston, Ill. With the win, the Redbirds finish the season 4-1 against Big Ten Conference opponents.
Picking up the win for Illinois State (25-25) was sophomore Luke Baughman (3-2). The right-hander pitched three innings and allowed only three hits and one run. Ned Schauff made the start and pitched only two innings, allowing only two runs.
Taking the loss for Northwestern (23-27) was Evan Blesoff (4-7), who gave up three earned runs in only one inning of work. Dan Schwartz made the start for Northwestern and pitched three innings, giving up two runs.
The Redbirds started the scoring in the second inning when Jay Molina led the inning off with a triple. Following a walk to Kyle OBrien, a Chris Frank single to left brought home Molina to give the Birds a 1-0 lead. Two batters later Blake Schoonover singled off of Schwartzs glove and into left-centerfield to drive in Frank and give ISU a 2-0 lead after the top of the second.
Northwestern would tie the game up at two in the bottom half of the second when Mike Phelps drove in two runs with a single.
The Redbirds would regain the lead in the top of the fourth when Mike Kelley lifted a sac fly to center to score OBrien, giving ISU a 3-2 lead. Illinois State was not done yet in the inning as Kris Jenkins and Anetsberger each had RBI singles to drive in one run each, moving the Illinois State lead to 5-2 after the top of the fourth.
Ryan Ori would double in a run in the bottom of the fifth for Northwestern, cutting the Redbird lead to 5-3 after five innings of play.
The Birds would break the game open in the eighth as they would start the inning by loading the bases with no outs. With one out, Jenkins would reach on a fielders choice on what should have been an inning-ending double play, but Northwestern second baseman Caleb Fields threw the ball away on the turn, allowing two Redbird runs to score. After Matt Bolt walked and stole second, Anetsberger singled in two more runs with a hit to right, making it 9-3 in favor of Illinois State.
The Wildcats would not go quietly however, as they quickly loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the eighth. Max Mann brought in one run with a sac fly and Phelps knocked in two more runs with a double to right-center, cutting the ISU lead to 9-6 after eight innings.
Northwestern would score two, two-out runs in the ninth and get the tying run to third before Matt Fowles would record a strikeout to end the game.
Illinois State will next be in action on Thursday when they begin a three-game series with Southern Illinois in Carbondale at 3 p.m.
