One important rule in baseball is to play all nine innings. As NIU baseball coach Ed Mathey described it, “There’s no clock in this game.”

The NIU baseball team found this out the hard way Wednesday night at Northwestern, as the Wildcats erased a game-long NIU lead with a two-run walk-off home run by Jake Goebbert off Dave Reynolds.

“We missed our location and our spot by a lot on that pitch,” Mathey said.

NIU jumped out to an early lead with a Jordin Hood solo home run in the first inning. Brett Frantini added to the lead with a two-run single in the second inning.

“That’s what we set out to do — score early,” Mathey said. “It takes a little pressure off the pitchers and let them settle in.”

Northwestern closed the gap to 4-3 after a Tony Vercelli double-plated Chris Lashmet to make it 4-2. Quentin Williams singled to score Vercelli to pull within one.

Nick Badgley posted an RBI single in the sixth to score Matt Behren to pull away 5-3.

Northwestern came back in the bottom half of the inning to make the score 5-4. With the tying run on third in the inning, Badgley forced a grounder to the hole between first and second. NIU second baseman Joe Buonavolanto scooped the ball up in the outfield grass and made a sliding throw to get Tommy Finn out, ending the inning.

The Wildcat bullpen stymied the Huskies’ offense from that point on, forcing fly ball outs. Mathey said the team wasn’t hitting down on the ball, therefore was not challenging the Wildcat defense to make plays.

Closer Tom Zelasko recorded two outs in the ninth allowing just one hit. Mathey played the numbers and put the lefty Reynolds in to face the left-handed hitting Goebbert, but the numbers game didn’t pan out.

On the mound, freshman Tom Barry pitched four innings and allowed three runs, but only one was earned. The Huskie bullpen held its ground too, allowing just one run until the final frame. Mathey said one problem for the staff was falling behind hitters.

“I would grade our pitching at a C,” Mathey said. “Barry battled and wasn’t as sharp as usual but only allowed one earned run.”

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