The good, the bad and the best: the bats showed out in the ’Cats first Big Ten series win of 2026
Northwestern’s bats took a big step in the right direction by taking two from Michigan State.
After dropping the opening game of the series against Michigan State to fall to 3-7 in conference play, I’ll admit, I was worried. But the ‘Cats, as they have all season, fought tooth-and-nail, refused to let up, and stole the next two from the Spartans for their first Big Ten series win of 2026. It was far from a perfect performance, but Ben Greenspan’s team has finally positioned themselves to seriously climb the Big Ten standings and, perhaps more importantly, avoid the gutter.
The Good If the ‘Cats didn’t mash as they did this past weekend, they likely would’ve gotten swept. The team’s six home runs, eight doubles and 30 hits pushed them to eighth in the Big Ten in slugging percentage. Finally, it seems, Greenspan and his squad discovered their identity and began to fully buy in.
Unlike his first year in Evanston, where Greenspan prioritized contact hitters that didn’t strike out, struggled to generate walks and couldn’t slug enough to offset the lack of baserunners, NU’s hitters this season go up to the plate looking to do damage. Unsurprisingly, this team simply lacks the talent on the mound to consistently win low-scoring games. The solution: win as many 10-9 and 8-6 contests as possible, which is exactly what they did over the weekend.
More importantly, it wasn’t just a few guys carrying the load; eight different Wildcats recorded RBIs in the series and each starter recorded a hit. This high-octane, hit-or-miss offense will undoubtedly frustrate and sputter over the course of a full season, but when they’re clicking, no game is out of reach. The Bad No realistic Northwestern baseball fan expected some astounding leap forward from the roster’s arms, but many stood to believe that we’d see enough improvement to make the squad more complete than it had been in years.