As rain soaked Elfstrom Stadium Tuesday night, it apparently waterlogged the bats of both teams, as Northwestern defeated NIU 2-1.

The two teams combined for 12 hits and one extra base hit on the night. The Wildcats (15-26) didn’t pick up hit No. 2 until the eighth inning.

The loss marked the first time NIU has lost at Elfstrom Stadium, dropping to 5-1 overall at the home of the Kane County Cougars.

The offense for the Huskies (13-31) showed faint vital signs throughout the night, scattering eight hits and one walk, while striking out nine times.

“We had some guys we thought were the right guys up, had some good opportunities,” said NIU head coach Ed Mathey. “It wouldn’t take a lot, maybe a ground ball through the middle, ground ball up the middle, ground ball out to get us a run.”

NIU had a few chances to tie the game late but instead produced only outs. A pair of strikeouts ended a scoring threat in the fifth with runners on second and third and just one out.

Another chance came in the bottom of the sixth with two outs and runners on first and second. With Jeff Zimmerman at the plate, Alex Jones attempted to steal third but was thrown out by Goeff Rowan to end the inning.

“He’s got a green light on certain pitches,” Mathey said of Jones. “He thought he read a breaking ball and it obviously wasn’t. With that situation he had a green light, but you certainly don’t want to take the bat out of Jeff Zimmerman’s hands.”

Northwestern took advantage of early control issues from Tom Barry in the first inning. With the bases loaded, Rowan drew a walk that scored leadoff hitter Zach Morton. It was one of three walks in the inning.

Barry struggled with control most of the night as he found himself in seven three-ball counts, issuing five walks and six strikeouts through seven innings. He allowed only one hit.

“He was struggling a little bit with just getting settled in on the mound out there. Looked like it might of been a little slick out there for him,” Mathey said. “He competed well for us. It was a game we wanted to make sure we got his pitch count back up.”

Northwestern would add to the lead in the top half of the ninth with Alex Klonowski on the hill. Cody Stevens stole second and Joe Battaglia’s throw went off the leg of Stevens and into left field. He would advance to third.

Hamilton Wise was the next batter and hit a hard grounder to Troy White at third. White’s throw pulled Zimmerman just off the bag at first, allowing the run to score and inning to continue.