May 17, 2007
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Box Score
TOLEDO, Ohio - Northern Illinois built a 4-0 lead but was unable to hang out, dropping a 6-4 decision to Toledo Thursday afternoon at Scott Park. The Huskies are now 31-21 on the season and 15-10 in the MAC.
NIU scored the first run of the game with a tally in the second inning. With runners at second and third, Matt Behren singled to score Scott Simon, who had reached when hit by pitch earlier in the frame, for a 1-0 Huskie lead.
Danny Reed followed singles by Seykora and Simon and belted a three-run home run, his fifth of the year, to put NIU ahead 4-0 in the third.
Toledo got its first run in the third on a RBI single by Jake Swint that cut the deficit to three at 4-1. The Rockets strung together three consecutive hits in the fourth and plated a run on Aaron Dudley's RBI single to make it 4-2.
The Rockets scored four runs on three hits and three errors in the sixth inning, keyed by a two-run single by Drew Hoisington, to move ahead 6-4.
NIU brought the tying run to the plate with two outs in the ninth after Daniel Jewett reached on an error and advanced to second on a passed ball, but was unable to push any more runs across.
Trevor Feeney (6-6) took the loss after going 5.1 innings while yielding nine hits and four earned runs. Andy Deain, Dave Nykiel and Brett Kellam combined for 2.2 innings of shutout relief.
Simon and Reed led the Huskie offense with two hits each.
Mike Inselmann (4-4) notched the victory for Toledo, who clinched a spot in the MAC Tournament and improved to 25-25 overall and 13-12 in league play. Jeff Cinadr earned his second save of the year.
The Huskies and Rockets meet Friday afternoon at 2 p.m. CDT in game two of the series.
HUSKIE TRACKS ...
-Scott Simon extended his hitting streak to eight games while moving his career hit total to 310, six shy of equaling the all-time MAC record.
-Trevor Feeney became the seventh pitcher in NIU history to top the 90-inning plateau in a season, moving into seventh place on the season list with 90.2 for the year, the most since Joe Piekarz totaled 116.1 in 2004.
-NIU dropped to 25-6 when leading after five innings.
-The Huskies went 5-4 in MAC series openers this season.
