Baseball: Monster day from Jack Lausch carries Northwestern over Valparaiso.

The dual-sport athlete had four hits in the 12-4 victory

Jack Lausch went 4-for-4 with a solo home run as Northwestern’s (24-25, 12-15 B1G) bats poured it on against Valparaiso (8-39) in a 12-4 drubbing in Evanston on Tuesday afternoon.

The quarterback wasn’t the only Wildcat to go yard against the Beacons. Owen McElfatrick and Jackson Freeman made it three dingers on the day as Northwestern broke the program record for home runs in the victory, passing the previous mark of 66 set in 2021 to bring the season total to 68.

That 2021 Northwestern team does deserve some real credit for hitting 66 home runs in a COVID-shortened season without any non-conference games. Led by Shawn Goosenberg, who is now playing Double-A ball in the Chicago White Sox system, those ‘Cats set the old mark in just 36 games.

Against Valparaiso, it took a little for the record-setting Northwestern offense to get going. Matthew Kouser started the game with three perfect innings, retiring all nine batters he faced and striking out three, but Valparaiso’s Nick Baffa kept pace with three scoreless frames of his own.

Head coach Ben Greenspan channeled his inner Dave Roberts and didn’t give Kouser the chance to throw the first perfect game in Northwestern history, opting to go with Amar Tsengeg to start the fourth inning. Tsengeg would surrender the first run of the game on a solo home run to Kevin Denty, but the Beacons would not hold the lead for long.

Jackson Freeman got his guys on the board with a two-run shot in the bottom of the fourth that scored Ryan Kucherak, and Lausch made it 3-1 with a solo blast that may very well have broken some Welsh-Ryan Arena windows.

Northwestern continued to pile it on in the bottom of the sixth. After a scoreless fifth and sixth innings from Tsengeg and Jack Grunkemeyer, Tyler Ganus extended the Northwestern lead to three on a bases-loaded fielder’s choice. Griffin Mills broke the dam open three batters later with a two-run RBI double ripped down the third base line that made it 6-1 ‘Cats after six.

Valparaiso made it a little interesting in the top of the seventh. After Grunkemeyer allowed a single and hit two batters to load the bases, Greenspan opted to bring in Christian Forniss to mitigate the damage. Forniss got the first out on a sacrifice fly but surrendered singles to his next two batters as the Beacons cut the score to 6-4.

After an infield fly for out number two and another single, Forniss stranded the bases loaded as Valparaiso’s Thomas Cooper flew out to left field.

Tyler Ganus and Jacob Hand provided Northwestern some much-needed insurance in the bottom of the seventh. Ganus scored Bennett Markinson with a fielder’s choice, and Hand brought in Lausch with a fielder’s choice of his own one batter later.

McElfatrick hit Northwestern’s third dinger of the day to make it 9-4 in the bottom of the eighth. Lausch would get his fourth hit — and second RBI — of the day four batters, scoring Kucherak with a well-placed single through the right side of the infield. Ganus brought in Markinson for a second time in two innings before scoring himself on a wild pitch. Northwestern led 12-4 going into the ninth.

Forniss fanned two in a scoreless top of the last to bring his strikeout total to four in three innings pitched, and the ‘Cats came away with a clean 12-4 Tuesday afternoon victory.

Northwestern will now travel to Los Angeles for a crucial three-game series against No. 14 UCLA (37-14, 20-7 B1G) with its Big Ten Tournament life on the line. The ‘Cats currently are the last team out of the 12-team tournament on an RPI tiebreaker with Michigan State. Northwestern, Michigan State (27-23, 12-15 B1G) and Illinois (27-22, 12-15 B1G) are all 12-15 in conference. Northwestern has the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Illini but not over the Spartans, and if all three teams remained tied after the weekend, the ‘Cats would be the odd team out with the lowest RPI of the group.

Michigan State and Illinois both play the two worst teams in the conference in Minnesota (22-27, 8-19 B1G) and Ohio State (12-35, 4-23 B1G) respectively in the final weekend. The Spartans are at home, and the Illini are playing in Columbus.

To run through scenarios quickly:

If Northwestern sweeps UCLA:

• NU is IN unless both Michigan State AND Illinois sweep their final series.

If Northwestern goes 2-1:

• NU is IN if Michigan State sweeps Minnesota, and Illinois goes 2-1 against Ohio State
• NU is IN if one of Michigan State and Illinois go 1-2 on the weekend
• NU is OUT if Michigan State and Illinois both go 2-1 or both go 3-0 on the weekend

If Northwestern goes 1-2:

• NU is IN if Illinois goes 1-2 or worse, AND Michigan State goes 2-1 or better OR 0-3
• NU is IN if Michigan State OR Illinois are swept

If Northwestern goes 0-3:

• NU is OUT unless Illinois is swept, AND Michigan State goes 1-2 or better