April 8, 2006

Box Score

DeKALB, IL - Northern Illinois fell 21-2 to Kent State Saturday afternoon at Ralph McKinzie Field. The Huskies now stand at 12-16 overall, 4-4 in MAC play while the Golden Flashes improve 16-10, 6-2 in the league. Sunday will mark the series finale between the teams.

Kent State opened the scoring with a run in the first and added six in the third and two in the fourth to jump out to a 9-0 lead. The Huskies tallied a fourth-inning run when Scott Simon (Algonquin/Marian Central Catholic) blasted his third home run of the season over the center field wall.

The Flashes extended their lead to 11-1 in the seventh before Simon scored his second run of the day on a double down the right field line by Jeff Thomas (Loves Park/Harlem) in the bottom of the frame.

KSU tacked on three more runs in the eighth and six in the ninth for the game's final margin.

Huskie starter Trevor Feeney (Channahon/Joliet Catholic) took his first loss of the year (3-1) despite registering a career-best eight strikeouts in his four innings of work. Brandon Hodge (Union Center, WI/Kishwaukee CC) and Brett Kellam (Chicago/Scottsdale AZ CC) each tossed scoreless innings in relief.

KSU started Steve Ross evened his record at 3-3 with the victory, going 7.0 innings while yielding three hits and two earned runs without a walk.

Simon paced the Huskie offense with two hits, two runs scored and one RBI.

The final game of the three game series between NIU and KSU is set for 1 p.m. Sunday afternoon with live coverage available on GameTracker, linked through the baseball schedule page of www.niuhuskies.com.

NOTABLE HUSKIE TRACKS ...

-Trevor Feeney's eight strikeouts eclipse both his career high and MAC high of seven set on March 26 at Ohio.
-Scott Simon has hit safely in all eight MAC games this season and is batting .556 in league play.
-Kent State's 21 runs were the most allowed by NIU this season.