March 28, 2006
Box Score
DeKALB, IL - The Northern Illinois Huskies made their home debut a success by sweeping intrastate foe Bradley at Ralph McKinzie Field Tuesday afternoon by scoring 3-2 and 5-3 victories. Winners of four straight games, the Huskies improved to 9-13 on the season while the Braves dropped to 9-11. The game one victory marked the four consecutive home opening win the NIU and when the day was done, the Huskies owned a 5-1 record against Missouri Valley Conference foes.
NIU returns to action Friday afternoon in its MAC home opener against Akron. First pitch at McKinzie Field is slated for 2 p.m.
In game one, Bradley jumped out to a 1-0 lead in its first at-bat when Ryan Curry sacrifice fly scored Brad Jones who led off the game with a double.
NIU responded with two scores in the second inning to take a 2-1 lead. Matt Behren drove home Jesse Seykora on a RBI and later came around to score on Pat Minogue's RBI single.
The Braves knotted the score at two in the sixth when Curry's double plated Colby Luttrell.
Originally scheduled for a seven-inning game, the Huskies and Braves took the contest into an extra frame. In the bottom of the eighth, Seykora led off with a double and was pinch run for by Daniel Jewett. After Jeff Thomas reached on a throwing error during a fielder's choice sacrifice attempt, Kyle Pettengell was walked to load the bases with no one out. Justin Behm then pinch hit for Behren and delivered a sacrifice fly that plated Jewett for the winning score.
Matt German (1-0) earned his first victory of the season in relief. Peter Elmer (1-2) took the loss for Bradley.
Matt Jernstad threw 5.2 solid innings, yielding just three hits while striking out three and was followed by Mark Badgley, who threw two scoreless innings of relief while fanning two.
NOTABLE HUSKIE TRACKS ...
-The Huskies won their fourth consecutive home opener and are 4-0 in home lid lifters under Ed Mathey.
-Jesse Seykora extended his season-high hit streak to 11 games.
-Pat Minogue recorded his fourth consecutive multi-hit game.
