IU falls to 3-12 in Big Ten play after Northwestern series

The Hoosiers took a trip to Evanston, Ill., to face Northwestern Easter weekend. The Hoosiers lost three of four and came back with a below .500 record overall, falling to 3-12 in conference play.\nIn the first game of the series, the Wildcats and Hoosiers battled into extra innings with the Wildcats driving across the sixth and winning run in the bottom of the 10th.\nThe Wildcats scored three runs in the final three innings to tie the Hoosiers, sending the game into extra innings. Junior left hander Brad Edwards started the game for the Hoosiers, going seven and a third innings, allowing four hits, three earned runs and striking out three. \nThe Wildcats continued their string of last at-bat, one runs victories as they swept Saturday's doubleheader 3-2, 4-3. In the first game, Northwestern's Eric Roder drove in pitch-runner Andy Adams with a suicide squeeze in the bottom half of the seventh. IU came into the final inning\nwith a 2-1 lead, but gave up two runs for its second consecutive loss.\nSenior right hander Nick Otte threw a complete game for the Hoosiers, giving up four base hits, three runs, three walks and four strikeouts.\nIn the second game of the doubleheader, the Hoosiers jumped out to a 3-0 lead before giving up four runs in the bottom of the sixth, falling 4-3. Sophomore right hander Jacob Cary allowed one hit in five innings until an error by sophomore second baseman Nick Evans allowed Wildcat runners to reach base. \nThe Hoosiers' troubles started there and ended with sophomore right hander Nick Vitielliss throwing a wild pitch, allowing the winning run to cross the plate for the Wildcats. The Hoosier out-hit the Wildcats 19-8 in the two games but came out with two loses.\n"It was hard because Nick (Otte) and I both pitched well but we weren't able to extend the lead. Northwestern hung in tough and its just a disappointment that we lost two games the way we did," Cary said in a press release.\nThe Hoosiers got the chance to pin one on the Wildcats in the series finale, beating Northwestern 5-3, giving coach Bob Morgan win number 950. \nThis time, it was the Hoosiers doing the late-inning scoring as IU put two runs across the plate in the top of the eighth and one in the ninth. \nJunior Matt Rice got his third no-decision in four Big Ten starts, giving up six hits, two earned runs, walking three and striking out four. Sophomore Ryan Smithcame in for relief and got the win, going three and two-thirds innings, not allowing a run and striking out two.\n"We just did what we hadn't done in the previous three games, which was get the lead and extend the lead," Morgan said in a press release. "We saw this one through and we were able to get the victory"