May 6, 2009
EVANSTON, Ill. -
Northwestern and University of Chicago had their contest called after five and a half innings of scoreless baseball Wednesday afternoon at Rocky Miller Park. Rain and lightning forced the cancellation of the game which officially goes down as a tie.
The Wildcats are now 12-31-1 this season while the Maroons move to 18-11-1.
It is NU's first tie since playing to a 3-3 10-inning deadlock against New Mexico Feb. 22, 2004. It is the sixth time in Paul Stevens' 22 seasons as head coach that Northwestern has played a tie game.
Each team managed three hits in the contest as starters Francis Brook for NU and Joe Pankow from Chicago each hurled five shutout frames. Cole Livermore came on in the sixth and worked around a one-out walk before the contest was called.
Northwestern had its best scoring opportunity in the second as Paul Snieder and Tony Vercelli led off the frame with back-to-back singles, but a double play and a strikeout ended the threat.
The Maroons had two aboard with one out in the third, but a twin-killing got the Wildcats out of trouble.
The game was delayed for 28 minutes in the middle of the fifth due to lightning in the area, but neither team was able to tally before a combination of rain and lightning forced the remainder of the contest to be canceled.
Northwestern returns to action at 2 p.m. Central time Friday as it travels to Indiana.