It was another high-scoring affair for Northwestern baseball yesterday, as the 'Cats took down Valparaiso by a final score of 13-9 at Rocky and Berenice Miller Park in Evanston.
This game script has become typical for the Wildcats -- the bats get off to a hot start; the pitching struggles; and then it comes down to clutch hitting at the end of the game. This hasn't necessarily been a formula for consistent winning, which makes sense, but Northwestern came out on the right end of things yesterday.
A bit of a three-headed monster is starting to emerge in this NU lineup. Ryan Kucherak, Jack Lausch and Jackson Freeman are the 'Cats' most exciting players, and they all showed up against Valpo.
Kucherak drew first blood in the first inning, launching a solo homer to right field. He'd go on to post a 3-for-5 day at the dish with four RBIs -- not a bad day at the office. The junior shortstop is now hitting .292 on the season with three bombs and six stolen bases. He provides tangible value in all areas of the game for the Wildcats.
After his homer, Northwestern starter Tommy Bridges promptly allowed four earned runs in the second inning. Poor pitching has been an incredibly concerning trend for the 'Cats in 2026, and it hurt them again yesterday.
But Freeman got in on the party in the third with a homer of his own to bring the deficit back to two. It was his only hit of the day, but the right fielder was on base three times with two walks. He's now hitting .304 on the season with a .510 slug and a .372 OBP. Freeman is emerging as a stud for the Wildcats at the plate, and his stock continues to rise every game.
In the fourth, NU put some runners on base and scratched across two more runs to tie the score. Valpo briefly took the lead in the fifth, but then the Wildcats exploded for four runs in the fifth to take an 8-5 lead.
Three of those runs came on an enormous homer from former football quarterback Jack Lausch. Lausch is now the starting center fielder for Northwestern's baseball team, and he's starting to put himself in a position to get a chance to play at the next level.
He was a perfect 3-for-3 on the day, tacking on two walks to make it on base five times in five plate appearances. Lausch is a good outfielder, too, and he's having a tremendous season. After getting his feet wet last season, his slugging percentage is up to .574 from .450. He's already hit as many homers this year as he did in all of last season (6). He's getting on base at a higher clip, and he's almost equaled his number of stolen bases from 2025.
Lausch is getting better, and he's impacting winning in a multitude of ways for the Wildcats.
But in classic Northwestern fashion, it needed even more offensive production to get the job done against Valparaiso. In the sixth and the eighth, Kucherak drove in three more runs. Without those runs, Valpo would have been right back in the game.
While the lineup was fantastic, nobody save for Dominic Deloreto (who tossed one scoreless inning), had a good day on the mound. Northwestern now sits at 10-14-1 on the season, but its ceiling would be so much higher if it could stop allowing over eight runs per contest.
It remains to be seen if the Wildcats can get that under control, but it would be a shame to waste career seasons from Kucherak, Lausch and Freeman.