May 10, 2007
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Games 47-49, May 11-13: NORTHERN ILLINOIS (27-19, 13-8) at BALL STATE (16-31, 5-16)
Friday: 2 p.m. CDT / Saturday: Noon CDT / Sunday: Noon CDT
Location: Ball Diamond, Muncie, Ind.
Live Coverage: BSU Live Stats via www.niuhuskies.com
SERIES INFORMATION
All-Time Record: BSU leads 27-17-1
Last Meeting: 2006: BSU 10-3, BSU 4-0, (Game 3 was rained out) in DeKalb
Ed Mathey against BSU: 1-8
Notes: Ball State has won the last eight meetings in the series and is 10-0 in MAC meetings at Muncie since 1998 ... NIU's last win over BSU was on Feb. 28, 2003 in a non-conference meeting ... The last Huskie victory at Ball State came on May 9, 1980, also the last series win, a doubleheader sweep.
SHORT HOPS
-The reigning MAC West Pitcher of the Week, closer Matt German leads the MAC in saves. Already, NIU's career saves leader, German ranks in a tie for third on the MAC's all-time list. He has won or saved 28 of the last 51 Huskie victories (55%) over the past two seasons and has allowed just one hit in his nine saves.
-Head coach Ed Mathey has 132 victories at NIU and is one win away from tying Walt Owens for second-place on the school's list. He moved into third place on April 28 with his 127th victory and is 12 wins from becoming NIU's career leader.
-Mark Badgley enters the week as the MAC strikeout leader with 9.48 per game.
-NIU's 27 victories equal the school's fifth-highest season total. The Huskies won 20 of their first 31 games this season, becoming the fastest NIU baseball team to reach the 20-win mark in three decades.
-Scott Simon is among 30 national candidates for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award, presented to college baseball's outstanding senior student athlete.
-NIU entered 2007 as the only Illinois school represented on both the NCBWA
Stopper of the Year (Matt German) and Brooks Wallace Award (Scott Simon) watch lists. German was the "Projected MAC Pitcher of the Year" by Collegiate Baseball in its preseason preview issue.
PROBABLE PITCHERS
Friday: Trevor Feeney (5-5)
Saturday: Matt Jernstad (3-2)
Sunday: Mark Badgley (4-4)
MATHEY MILESTONES: Head coach Ed Mathey is just one win from moving into a tie for second place on the NIU career victory list. Mathey notched his 127th career victory on April 28 to move into sole possession of third place, surpassing the legendary George Evans and is just 12 wins from becoming the school's all-time winningest coach. Three of the NIU's top five season win totals have come under Mathey.
NIU Career Coaching Victories
1. Spanky McFarland 143
2. Walt Owens 133
3. Ed Mathey 132
SPEAKING GERMAN: The reigning MAC West Pitcher of the Week for the second time this season, Matt German leads the league with 11 saves. The lefthander owns the NIU career saves record with 24 and is tied for third on the MAC's all-time list. He has allowed just one hit while notching his last nine saves and owns a career-high four wins. Of the past 51 NIU victories, German has factored into 28 of them (55%) either by win or save. German's 99 career appearances rank second in both MAC and NIU history behind only current teammate Mark Badgley. On April 1, German made his collegiate debut at the plate after a substitution eliminated the DH spot for the Huskies and delivered a RBI single.
SIMON SAYS: Prior to the season, Scott Simon was named to the Brooks Wallace Award Watch List (National Player of the Year) and listed by Collegiate Baseball as one of the "Top Players to Watch" in the MAC and as the league's No. 3 Player of the Year candidate by Perfect Game Crosschecker. Simon owns several NIU record, including career marks for hits (299), RBI (188), doubles (65), games played (221) and at-bats (861) while ranking fourth in runs (145) and in a tie for sixth in home runs (21). Simon's career totals for hits rank third in MAC history and he is in fourth in doubles. He also owns the single season records for hits (89), doubles (24), and RBI (71), all set in 2004.
SIMON UP FOR SENIOR CLASS AWARD: Scott Simon was named to a list of 30 candidates for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award for baseball, an honor that goes to the nation's outstanding student athlete. A media committee will narrow the candidate pool to 10 in May before a nationwide vote will help to select the honoree. Simon is the lone MAC representative on the initial candidates list and one of only five players from Midwest schools. The award's website can be found at www.seniorclassaward.com.
TO AIR IS HUMAN: The duo of Scott Simon and Matt German are not only flying high on the field, but both are pursuing pilot's licenses with the hopes of becoming commercial pilots.
BEST OF BOTH WORLDS: NIU won its first four MAC games of the season for the first time ever and started conference play at 9-3, its best MAC start in history. With 20 wins in their first 31 games, the Huskies were the 2007 squad was the fastest NIU baseball team to reach the 20-win plateau in three decades. From March 17-28, NIU notched six consecutive wins for the longest win streak under Ed Mathey.
PITCHING PLAUDITS: NIU's team ERA of 4.50 is the best mark of the Ed Mathey era by over a full half run while posting improved numbers across the board, including the best strikeouts/per game and lowest hits per game and walks and hits per innings pitched during that stretch. If the Huskies can maintain that pace, it would be their best team ERA since a 4.10 mark in 1977. More impressively, NIU's 2007 conference ERA is 3.61 and the Huskies have recorded a pair of 14-strikeout games against MAC foes Kent State (4/6) and Eastern Michigan (4/29).
BADGE OF HONOR: Mark Badgley owns a 0.64 ERA with 15 strikeouts and one walk in 14.0 innings during his two MAC starts, both coming in the past two series finales. Badgley has taken on the role of pitching staff "swing man" with 12 relief appearances and eight starts while leading the MAC in strikeouts and ranking second on the team with four victories. In his April 29 start against MAC leader Eastern Michigan, Badgley set career highs with 7.1 innings and 10 strikeouts. His longest relief outing was 6.2 innings for the win April 7 at Kent State. Badgley was named MAC West Pitcher of the Week on Feb. 27 and is the league's career leader with 116 appearances. His current season total of 72 strikeouts, 45 of which have come in the past 37.1 innings, is the eighth highest in NIU history.
SEYKORA STUFF: Listed as one of the "Top Players to Watch" in the MAC by Collegiate Baseball, Jesse Seykora is currently among the MAC's top-eight in four offensive categories. He put up video game-like numbers during NIU's eight-game spring trip, hitting .500 (16-for-32), slugging 1.031, and belting five home runs with 15 RBI and 17 runs scored to earn MAC West Player of the Week accolades and mention on the College Baseball Foundation's national honor roll. In addition to posting a 12-game hit streak (March 2-20), Seykora surpassed his 2006 home run total (6) in just 17 games and has set career highs in hits, RBI and runs this season.
FORMIDABLE FEENEY: Trevor Feeney leads the team with five victories, 79.0 innings pitched, and two complete games while currently owning an amazing 37:7 strikeout to walk ratio in seven MAC starts. The Huskies No. 1 starter ranks third in the league in overall innings pitched and second in conference innings. He posted consecutive complete game victories to open the conference season and went 8.1 innings in his third start while striking out 12, the second-highest NIU game output on record, at Kent State on April 6.
SPECIAL K: The Huskie pitching staff leads the MAC with 324 overall strikeouts this season and 155 in conference games. Mark Badgley is the league's individual strikeout leader with 9.48 per game while teammate Matt Jernstad is ninth at 7.08. In league games, Badgley paces the conference strikeout leader with 9.85 per nine innings. The 2007 staff is on pace to eclipse the school-record total of 391 set during the 2001 campaign.
STATE SUCCESS: Under head coach Ed Mathey, NIU has a 38-18 (.679) record against intrastate opposition. Over the past two seasons, NIU has defeated each Land of Lincoln opponent faced, including a sweep of Illinois State in 2007. Last season, the Huskies went 11-2 (.846) with wins over all seven Land of Lincoln opponents for the highest winning percentage of any Illinois school against intrastate foes. The Huskies are 7-3 against Division I intrastate foes in 2007.
WINNING TOGETHER: Five Huskie pitchers have at least four victories this season, led by Trevor Feeney with five. Tied for second on the team with four each are Mark Badgley, Brandon Copp, Andy Deain and Matt German. That quintet accounts for 21 of NIU's 27 wins (78 percent) this season.
SWEEP COMEBACK: The Huskies posted three comeback victories to sweep MAC West foe Western Michigan May 4-6 in DeKalb. The most dramatic come-from-behind triumph came in game two of the weekend series. Trailing 5-2 in the bottom of the ninth, Jeff Thomas belted his first home run of the season, a three-run shot to right field, to knot the game at five before the Huskies eventually won on a walk-off walk. Thomas repeated his heroics Sunday with another game-tying home run to right, this time in the seventh, as NIU again rallied for a victory. NIU owns two conference series sweeps this season (also against Ohio March 23-25), its highest total since three in 2004.
FLYING HIGH AGAINST THE EAGLES: NIU set season MAC highs with an 11-run, 14-hit outburst in an 11-1 rout of conference leader Eastern Michigan on April 28. The win marked the Huskies' largest MAC victory margin since a 14-run difference (20-6) against Western Michigan on April 11, 2004. NIU's output was its highest home totals of the season and the largest victory margin since March 20, also 11-1 at Chicago State.
GOLDEN GLOVES: With a current fielding percentage of .961, NIU is on pace to set a school record for the Division I era. The current record of .958 was set in 1971 and tied in 1996. The overall school record was set in 1959 when the Huskies fielded at a .962 clip. This season's percentage of .961 would rank second all-time.
STREAKERS: Five Huskies have put together hit streaks of at least 10 games this season led by Danny Reed's 15-game mark. Jesse Seykora (12), Daniel Jewett (10), and Jordin Hood (10) have added long streaks while Scott Simon carried over an eight-game streak from 2006 and raised it to 10 by hitting safely in the first two contests this season. Reed, Seykora and Jewett were just one game from having concurrent double-digit streaks on March 23.
GRAND THEFT OF THE BASES: The Huskies have made a habit of successful base stealing by converting 62 of 81 attempts (77 percent) in 46 games this season to rank second in the MAC. NIU posted a streak of 14 consecutive games with a stolen base from March 30-April 20. The team's overall high is five steals, achieved three times, most recently at Illinois State on April 10 when Daniel Jewett led the way with a team-best three. Two Huskies rank among the MAC's top five in steals led by Bobby Stevens (3rd) and followed by Jewett (4th).
A GOOD REED: Danny Reed posted a 15-game hit streak from March 2-28, tying him for the highest NIU mark on record with Chuck Laird (1997), Rob Marconi and Joe Mazzuca (both in 2003). He also owns a separate streak of seven games and has hit safely in 35 of 41 games started this season. Currently the MAC's sixth-leading hitter at .347, Reed collected a season-high five RBI, including the bases clearing game-winning double, on March 4 at SIU.
APPEARING ACT: Four members of the NIU pitching staff rank among the MAC's top five in appearances. Matt German leads the way with 29 while Andy Deain ranks second with 23 and Dave Nykiel third with 22. Mark Badgley rounds out the top five with 20 outings. Badgley and German are 1-2 in both the MAC and NIU record books for career appearances.
STACKING UP WELL: NIU is ranked No. 106 in this week's Boyd World pseudo RPI. That mark is second-highest among state schools, trailing only Southern Illinois, and third-best in the MAC, behind only Central Michigan and Eastern Michigan.
OH CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN: NIU has four senior captains for the 2007 season: P Mark Badgley, P Matt German, 3B Jesse Seykora, and 1B Scott Simon. The quartet was selected by the coaching staff during fall practice.
SENIOR MOMENTS: The Huskies have 17 upperclassmen on their roster, including eight seniors: P Mark Badgley, 2B Marc Besteman, P Matt German, OF Daniel Jewett, OF/P Brett Kellam, C/OF Tim Ryan, 3B Jesse Seykora, and 1B Scott Simon.
