April 15, 2006
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Northwestern used the home run for the second-straight game to defeat Illinois at Illinois Field downstate in Champaign. This time the decisive round-tripper came off the bat of junior Caleb Fields. His third-inning, three-run homer put NU up 4-3 and the Wildcats never looked back, winning game one of Saturday's doubleheader 7-3. The win improved NU's overall record to 11-18 and 8-2 in the Big Ten.
Like they did in game on of the series, Illinois jumped out to the early lead, this time off Wildcat starter Dan Brauer (Wheaton, Ill./Wheaton-Warrenville South). U-of-I scored three runs on five hits, all singles.
Game two of the series followed the same pattern as Friday's contest, when in the top of the third inning NU scored four runs to take a 4-3 lead. And, once again, the long ball played a huge part. After Pat McMahon (Mundelein, Ill./Carmel) doubled home a run to continue his unbelievable weekend, third baseman Caleb Fields (Oak Park, Ill./Fenwick) hit a towering three-run home run over the left centerfield wall to give NU a 4-3 lead. Center fielder Aaron Newman (Palatine, Ill./Palatine) scored on McMahon's double after reaching on a fielder's choice. Following McMahon, second baseman Jake Owens (Steven Point, Wis./Pacelli) singled to left, leaving runners on first and third for Fields homer. It was his second round-tripper of the season.
Northwestern extended its lead to 5-3 in the top of the fourth inning on a Newman RBI single. Catcher Geoff Dietz (Lake Zurich, Ill./Lake Zurich) was hit by a pitch and advanced to second on a Tommy Finn (Valparaiso, Ind./Andrean) fielder's choice groundout. He advanced the final two bases when Newman's bouncing groundball got over the Illini third baseman's head and into left field.
Newman drove in his second run of the game with an RBI single in the top of the sixth inning to give NU a 6-3 lead. Dietz led off with a single to deep in the hole at shortstop and went to second on a balk call on the Illinois pitcher. Finn then sacrificed him over to third base. Newman followed with a bloop single just in front of the diving Illini centerfielder to score Dietz.
Antonio Mule (Lodi, N.J./Lodi) led off the top of the seventh inning with his third home run in two games and fifth of the season. His solo shot made the score 7-3 Northwestern.
The offense gave Brauer more than he needed in the game. The junior left-hander gave up only two hits after the first inning, improving to 3-1 on the season. In three Big Ten starts, Brauer has thrown three complete games and given up a grand total of four runs in 21.0 innings. In those 21 innings he has struck out 19.