April 17, 2010

Final Stats

Final Box

DeKALB, Ill. - A day after delivering a victory on head coach Ed Mathey's birthday, the Northern Illinois baseball team did not do the same on assistant coach Ray Napientek's birthday. Despite scoring at least a run in six of the nine innings, the Huskies dropped a 20-9 decision to Ohio on a sunny and cool Saturday afternoon of Mid-American Conference competition.

Napientek, who serves as the pitching coach, did not get a strong performance from his staff as the Bobcats (9-23, 5-6 MAC) scored in six of the nine frames as well, led by a pair of seven-run outputs in the third and sixth.

"On days like this you never like to lose, and we never like to lose, but they came out and slapped the ball around," said NIU head coach Ed Mathey. "When an opponent is swinging the bats that way, you try to put guys in there that can stop things. We were chasing runs so we weren't going to use our best guys out of the bullpen. Now, if it was Sunday, things would be different, but they came out and hit the ball. Jeremy has been real good for us this year and this was just a bad day for him.

"Ohio just beat us today."

The Huskies (12-21, 5-6 MAC) started out strong early after getting two runs in the first inning for a 2-0 advantage. Jordin Hood roped a one-out opposite field double to right-center field to score Alex Jones, who led off with a walk. Following a walk by Dave Reynolds, Troy White hit a sacrifice fly to right, scoring Hood, but right fielder Matt Keller dropped the ball to allow White to reach first. A wild pitch from starter Jason Moulton put both runners into scoring position, but Joe Etcheverry and Cory Krupp both struck out looking to end the threat.

After Robert Maddox hit an opposite field home run to the left line in the second, NIU kept its two-run advantage by executing a stellar base running play in the bottom half. Jamison Wells reached base on a one-out opposite field single through the left side. With Jones at the dish, Wells advanced to second on Kris McDonough's passed ball before Jones singled through the left side as well. An out later with Wells on third, Jones stole second base and drew a throw. Once he saw the throw, Wells instantly broke for the plate and scored. Following Hood being hit by a pitch, Reynolds reached on a third strike wild pitch to load the bases for White. Similar to how most of the rallies on the day ended, the Huskies could not get more runs out of the advantageous situation as White struck out looking.

Momentum then dramatically shifted after Ohio put up its first seven-run inning in the third and tacked on two more in the fourth. NIU answered with a run apiece in the third, fourth, and fifth, but the Huskies did not get the big hit to keep any of the rallies going. In the third, with Etcheverry on third and Brian Riegler on first, Wells used up an out to score a run on a fielder's choice grounder to short stop. In the fourth, with Alex Beckmann on third and Hood on first, Reynolds hit into a double play to score a run. In the fifth, after a Jones two-out RBI single through the right side and Beckmann single to third loaded the bases, Hood popped out to first.

The Bobcats broke the game open in the sixth with their second seven-run frame, leaving too big of a margin for the Huskies to overcome. After Ohio got another run in the seventh, NIU tried in the bottom half but the three runs were not enough. Following singles by Krupp and Riegler, Jones delivered a one-out RBI single through the right side. Beckmann backed it up with a single to the short stop in the left side hole to load the bases. Hood came through with a two-run single up the middle and Reynolds followed with another single up the middle to re-load the sacks. But the threat ended on a double play coming off the bat of White as he hit a grounder to short stop for a 6-4-3 twin killing.

"They did a nice job," Mathey said. "Their pitchers did a nice job of getting a ground ball when they needed to, getting a double play when they needed to. We had middle-of-the-order guys up with chances to prolong an inning, we just couldn't get done. That's what double plays do."

Ohio piled on two more in the eighth before ending the day with 20 runs on 17 hits and seven walks, taking advantage of a steady 16 MPH wind that was blowing out to left-center for the second day in row by hitting four home runs. The Huskies were only three hits behind, with 14 for the second straight game, but were not nearly as efficient, scoring their nine runs with the help of four walks. The double-digit hit effort for NIU was its 15th of the season and the Huskies have now scored 16 runs in two games. In the four contests prior to this series, NIU had 10 runs combined.

In relief, Rex Ingham (2-0) picked up the win, allowing four runs on 10 hits with five strikeouts in the final 5.1 innings. NIU starter Jeremy Gonzales (2-2) took the loss after surrendering eight runs on five hits and three walks in three innings.

Jones led the Huskie offense for the second consecutive game with another three-hit performance, going 3-for-4 with two runs, two RBI, a stolen base and walk. Riegler also notched a season-high three hits in five at-bats and scored a run. Hood drove in three and scored one on his two hits. Beckmann also had a pair of hits, scoring a run and walk.

"We just have to play baseball, comeback and get after it tomorrow to win this series at home," Mathey said.

The teams will wrap the three-game series tomorrow with a 1:05 p.m. CST first pitch for the rubber match.