April 11, 2006
Box Score
NORMAL, IL - Northern Illinois saw separate five-game winning streaks against Missouri Valley Conference teams and intrastate foes fall in a 7-3 loss at Illinois State Tuesday night at Redbird Field. The Huskies drop to 13-17 while ISU improves to 11-19 on the year.
The Huskies opened the scoring in their first at-bat to take an early 2-0 lead. Scott Simon (Algonquin/Marian Central Catholic) was hit by a pitch before Jesse Seykora (Owatonna, MN/North Iowa CC) blasted a Luke Baughman offering over the left field fence for his fourth dinger of the season.
ISU answered in the bottom of the first inning when Ryan Anetsberger delivered a RBI single and Jesse Griswold evened the score at two with a sacrifice fly.
The Redbirds took the lead on Matt Bolt's second-inning sacrifice fly and a triple by Anetsberger for a 4-2 advantage in the second. ISU added single runs in the sixth on Jay Molina's RBI single and the seventh on a Gabe DeMarco double to extend its lead to 6-2.
NIU put a run across in the eighth when Bobby Stevens (Chicago/Guerin Prep) tripled and scored on a Simon RBI double to cut the margin to 6-3.
ISU scored an insurance run in the eighth when Mike Tokarski scored on Bolt's groundout for a 7-3 lead.
Brandon Hodge (Union Center, WI/Kishwaukee CC) absorbed the loss (0-2) and Dave Nykiel (Tinley Park/Andrew) fanned a season-best five in 2.1 innings of relief. ISU starter Luke Baughman (3-2) took the win while Mike Hlavacek earned his fifth save.
NIU continues its MVC road swing Wednesday night with a 6 p.m. contest at Northern Iowa in Waterloo. Live coverage will be available on GameTracker, linked through the baseball schedule page of www.niuhuskies.com.
NOTABLE HUSKIE TRACKS ...
-Jesse Seykora's homer was his team-high fourth and first round-tripper of April.
-NIU scored nine first inning runs in two games against ISU, including seven in the April 4 meeting in DeKalb.
-The Huskies own a 6-2 record against MVC teams with one game remaining this season (Wednesday at UNI).
-NIU is now 6-2 against intrastate foes with four contests left against Illinois schools in 2006.
