April 24, 2010

Final Stats

Final Box

TOLEDO, Ohio - On a cool and cloudy afternoon at Scott Park Saturday, the Northern Illinois baseball team was held to five hits as Toledo tallied nine en route to a 5-1 win in Game Two of a three-game Mid-American Conference series.

The Huskies (14-24, 5-9 MAC) started the game by loading the bases with one out in the first inning and putting a pair of runners in scoring position with two outs in the second, but failed to score a run in both opportunities.

The lone tally came in the third inning. Jordin Hood reached on a fielding error by third baseman Joe Corfman and stole second. Joe Etcheverry then singled to center field to score Hood.

"We had their pitcher on the ropes early, but didn't crack through until the third," said NIU head coach Ed Mathey. "We needed to keep grinding it out and for some reason we stopped."

The NIU lead was then scratched in the fourth after Aaron Dudley hit a home run to right-center to begin the inning.

With both starters pitching well, the game changed in the fifth on a Huskie fielding miscue. With runners on first and third, Jeremy Gonzales got Chris Dudics to foul out to third baseman Troy White, ranging far back to his right to make an overhead catch. After a walk to Jared Hoying loaded the bases, Gonzales induced another foul out to White, who made an even better play in foul territory as he ranged back to his right even further for a basket catch. The junior righty then got Aaron Dudley to hit a routine fly to left, but Alex Beckmann took his eye off it at the last second and the ball hit his glove, falling onto the grass and allowing two runs to score. Beckmann redeemed himself by making an easy catch to get the last out of the frame, but momentum had already shifted in the Rockets' favor.

"That was a huge part of the game," said Mathey. "Jeremy started out throwing the baseball very well today. I thought he threw the ball better than what we had yesterday. He got a pitch in the wrong location and the guy hit it out in the fourth, but that's baseball.

"They had some guys up that were dangerous, middle of the order, and Jeremy made two very good pitches to get out of the inning. Unfortunately, we didn't' make the play to end it. Jeremy did a nice job of not letting it get out of hand by getting the next guy out."

With two outs in the sixth, the Rockets (23-15, 10-4 MAC) added two more runs on a Dudics triple to the right field line, distancing themselves from the Huskies, as NIU was unable to get anything more than two hits in its final three at-bats.

"All those pitches and situations add up and make it tougher on the pitcher and the advantage starts going toward the hitters, which is what happened in the sixth," Mathey said.

After giving up eight earned runs over three innings in his last start, Gonzales (2-3) recovered against the Rockets to allow three earned runs, five total, in six innings on eight hits and three walks with four strikeouts. Despite taking the loss, he produced his fourth quality start of the season.

UT starter Mike Hamman (4-2) earned the win by allowing one unearned run on four hits and three walks with five strikeouts in seven innings.

Dave Reynolds led the NIU offense with two hits in four at-bats. White, who added a double, Alex Jones and Etcheverry tallied hits as well.

With Toledo's wins in the first two games of the series, the Huskies will look to salvage the finale tomorrow with an 11:05 a.m. CST first pitch, which was changed from an original noon start due to the weather forecast.