May 13, 2006
Box Score
DeKALB, IL - Northern Illinois dropped a 10-3 decision to Ball State Saturday afternoon in the first game of a doubleheader at Ralph McKinzie Field. The nitecap was suspended after five innings of play with the Cardinals leading 3-0 and will be resumed from that point Sunday afternoon. NIU is presently 23-27, 8-14 in the MAC while BSU stands at 30-18, 14-7 in conference.
A seven-run second inning, keyed by a grand slam from first baseman Brad Miller, propelled the Cardinals to an early advantage. In the fourth inning, BSU added three runs on a triple by Chris Pestle to take a 10-0 lead.
NIU got its first run of the game in the sixth inning. Marc Besteman (Bradford, Ontario/North Central TX CC) led off the inning with a bunt single and was advanced to second on a Pat Minogue (Crystal Lake/Central) sacrifice bunt. Bobby Stevens (Chicago/Guerin Prep) singled, moving Besteman to third, and a single by Scott Simon (Algonquin/Marian Central Catholic) brought in the Huskie second baseman.
The Huskies scored two more in the seventh inning. Tim Ryan (Rolling Meadows/Kishwaukee CC) opened the frame with a single and was doubled home by the next batter, Justin Behm (Downers Grove/North). After advancing to third on a passed ball, Behm came in to score on a Daniel Jewett (West Frankfort/Rend Lake CC) RBI groundout to make it a 10-3 game and provide the final margin.
Matt Jernstad (Oswego) took the loss (4-1) and four Huskies combined to throw 5.1 innings of scoreless relief. Ben Snyder (6-4) picked up the victory for BSU.
Five innings of the second game of the doubleheader were completed before play was suspended by darkness. The game will be picked up in the top of the sixth with BSU ahead 3-0 at noon on Sunday. Following the completion of the suspended game, game three, originally scheduled for Sunday, will be played. All games will feature live statistics on GameTracker on the baseball schedule page of www.niuhuskies.com.
NOTABLE HUSKIE TRACKS ...
-The Huskie bullpen has thrown 7.1 consecutive scoreless innings over its last two games.
-NIU's string of three consecutive home victories ended with the loss.
-Pat Minogue extended his hitting streak to eight consecutive games.
