Wednesday’s doubleheader against St. Xavier featured two opposite games played by the NIU baseball team.

The first was a pitchers’ duel featuring a career performance by NIU starting pitcher Nathan Stillwell. The Huskies barely escaped with a 2-1 win.

The second game was filled with errors, walks, batters hit by pitches and long offensive rallies. Xavier bounced back for a 16-12 rebuttal to NIU’s earlier win.

“What I’m happy about is that we lost a tough game in the first game but came back with resilience in the second game to win,” Xavier coach Mike Dooley said. “A lot of teams would have just rolled over after that first loss.”

Stillwell struck out nine in 6 2/3 innings, finishing one out short of his first complete game. The 6-foot-1 starter got two quick outs in the top of the seventh with a strikeout and an infield fly ball. He later gave up a double to the Cougars’ Ryan Howell.

NIU coach Ed Mathey took Stillwell out after the double, which put the tying run in scoring position and brought in closer Trevor Wohlgemuth.

Wohlgemuth got Brendan Christy to ground the ball to shortstop Greg Larsen, whose throw was too high for NIU first baseman Scott Simon.

Wohlgemuth got the final out he needed in the next at-bat, but third baseman Rob Marconi’s throw to first base made some nervous.

“I don’t know what it was,” Marconi said. “I didn’t feel tense or nervous. I try not to let those feelings creep into my body. It was just a bad release point I guess, but Simon helped me out.”

Wohlgemuth walked off the mound with his fifth save of the year.

Xavier came back in the second game, scoring four runs in the first and 11 runs in the fourth.

“It was our pitching on the mound that didn’t do the job for us,” Mathey said. “You can’t give up walks and get behind in the count. It’s frustrating from the coaching side, from the defensive standpoint and from the pitching standpoint.”