May 9, 2009

Final Stats

Final Box

DeKALB, Ill. - The Northern Illinois baseball team fell to Ball State 9-1 on Saturday afternoon in a Mid-American Conference game at Ralph McKinzie Field as Cardinal starter Brenden Stines dominated the Huskie offense with 11 strikeouts in seven innings, allowing only an unearned run on three hits and four walks to improve his record to 3-4 on the season.

"Stines was establishing pitches all day," said NIU head coach Ed Mathey. "He had his fastball going, his breaking ball going, and the change-up, too. When you have three pitches working like that, you can sequence them differently and it makes it hard for an offense to perform. He threw a great game today. I think our hitters are also trying to do too much. We aren't letting it come to us and react. We have a proactive approach. We have to make that correction for tomorrow's game, but I take nothing away from Stines. He was real good today."

Behind Stines, the BSU (23-21, 11-10 MAC) offense broke a 1-1 tie in the third inning with three runs, added another in the fourth and two more in the eighth on back-to-back one-out solo homers by Zach Dygert and Ian Nielsen. BSU then scored two in the ninth to put the game out of reach for the Huskies (17-31, 8-14 MAC) as NIU starter Chris Wakefield (Canton, Ga./Cherokee) was tagged with the loss (1-5) after giving up four earned runs on six hits and seven walks in 4.2 innings with three strikeouts.

The Cardinal three-run third started with consecutive singles by Kolbrin Vitek and Dygert. Nielsen's sacrifice fly pushed Vitek homer and then Kory Benbow singled homer Dygert on the next play. After T.J. Baumet singled, NIU catcher Matt Behren (Elmwood Park, Ill./Holy Cross) tried to pick him off at first, but his throw sailed into right field, allowing Benbow to score before Wakefield struck out the last two batters of the frame.

"There was a definite slide of momentum in that third inning," said Mathey. "We didn't come up aggressively enough on the first ball and then we throw through on a base hit to the outfield that let the trailing runner get to second. Those plays cost us.

"I though Chris Wakefield threw the ball as well as he has all year today, and that's good to see that progress. I don't think he deserved that fate in the third inning, but that's how it went and we weren't able to respond with the bats. I think that third inning added to their pitcher's confidence level and added to our hitters' frustration level."

Dygert led the BSU offense with three hits, his seventh homer, two runs and three RBI. Nielson hit his eighth homer as one of his two hits, scored a run and drove in two. Benbow also had two hits, scored two runs and had an RBI.

Joe Etcheverry (Bakersfield, Calif./Centennial) drove home the lone NIU run with his only hit of the day. Dave Reynolds (Orland Park, Ill./Sandburg) and Pat Minogue (Crystal Lake, Ill./Central) had the other two Huskie hits. With Minogue's infield single to shortstop in the third, he became just the fourth player in program history to reach the 200-hit plateau.

Despite allowing the back-to-back homers, freshman Kyle Glancy (Oak Park, Ill./Oak Park-River Forest) had a strong outing as he racked up a season-high seven strikeouts in 3.1 innings, including striking out the side in the seventh inning.

"It was good to see that out of Kyle today," said Mathey. "We hope he can continue with the progress he has made because he is a guy that has the ability to be productive for us."

The teams finish the three-game set tomorrow at 1:05 p.m. CT in what will be the last game for the Huskies at Ralph McKinzie Field in 2009. The probable pitchers for the series finale will be NIU LHP Brandon Copp (0-3, 12.86, 17 IP, 30 H, 12 BB, 13 SO) and BSU RHP Kolbrin Vitek (3-2, 6.02, 46.1 IP, 51 H, 8 BB, 46 SO). The game will have free streaming radio available through Huskie All-Access on www.niuhuskies.com and will have live stats via GameTracker.

Huskie Notes

- The NIU pitching staff combined for a season-high tying 11 strikeouts, which is the fourth time the Huskies have reached the total in 2009.