May 18, 2010

Final Stats

Final Box

DeKALB, Ill. - The bats came alive Tuesday evening at Ralph McKinzie Field as Northern Illinois used season-bests of 19 hits and 11 walks to score 21 runs to easily take down Milwaukee for the third time this season. With the 21-6 win, the Huskies (21-31) improved to 8-4 on the year in midweek non-conference games.

The scoring for NIU started in the first inning on an Alex Jones two-run home run to right-center field. From there, the Huskies did not stop scoring multiple runs until the seventh inning as they put up three runs in each of the second, third, fourth and fifth frames before piling on four in the sixth. After the lone scoreless inning of the game, NIU resumed its three-run trend in the eighth to finish off the offensive day.

"You wish you could put these runs in a bottle," said NIU head coach Ed Mathey. "The offense was pretty good today. We were hitting the ball pretty well. We had a good idea of the strike zone, getting ourselves into hitter's count, and taking advantage of it. Like I said, I wish we could bottle it because today was pretty impressive from an offensive standpoint."

The runs were plentiful enough for starter Kyle Glancy (3-3), who made his only other start on March 14th. The righty threw four effective innings to pick up the win, allowing two runs on three hits and three walks with a season-high six strikeouts. Following his biggest blemish of the day, a solo homer to Ben Long in the second, Glancy retired seven Panthers in a row with three strikeouts before his control started to elude him a bit. With two outs in the fourth, he allowed a walk, single and walk to load the bases. He then also walked Doug Dekoning to force in a run, but recovered to strike out Drew Pearson swinging to escape the jam and end his day on a good note.

"Kyle is a guy that we wanted to keep in the bullpen earlier in the year because we had some guys with things going on with their shoulders and Kyle was healthy," said Mathey. "About midway through the year, Kyle's shoulder got tired so we gave him a rest. We just haven't had a chance to give him enough innings. It made sense to start him today to get him back track and ready for this weekend.

"He did a nice job. He was working ahead for the most part. In that fourth inning, I think he started to get a bit tired because he hasn't thrown that many pitches and worked that long this year. We also had a pitch count set for him, and if he had gotten out of the fourth cleanly, he would have pitched in the fifth. But it was time to get him out and turn it over to the other guys to get some work. I'm real happy with Kyle's work today."

UWM (26-23) starter Cuyler Franzke (3-5) was tagged with the loss after lasting only 1.1 innings, giving up five runs on eight hits with two strikeouts.

Jones' third long-ball of the season tied his freshman campaign total and was also his third in the last seven days and second against the Panthers. Dave Reynolds and Brian Smith also joined the sophomore with homers on the day as the two went back-to-back in the fourth inning for their first dingers of the season. Reynolds' was a two-run shot to right-center, while Smith's was a majestic blast to right.

Jones also led the hit attack with three, along with two runs and a stolen base. Additionally, Jamison Wells, Joe Buonavolanto, Ben Etcheverry, Reynolds and Smith had two hits apiece. Buonavolanto, Reynolds and Smith drove in three runs each, while Smith also scored three runs. Wells, Jones, Jordin Hood, Reynolds and Brian Riegler scored two runs each as well.

"Everybody did a good job today," said Mathey. "That's what I told them. We had some guys who haven't' had enough at-bats and haven't had consistent playing time come through. They went in there and didn't give away at-bats. They worked the count and had good approaches. That's what we need to continue to have happen.

"Hopefully we can continue this through the weekend, that's the main goal. Our overall goal right now is to get to 24 wins. The small goal is to get to 22 on Thursday and hopefully we can continue to swing the bats."

NIU will next host Western Michigan this weekend in its last regular season games of the year. The last time the Huskies put up hit and run totals like Tuesday's performance was in a 21-9 win over the Broncos with 25 hits last season on May 14th. Games are slated for Thursday at 3:05 p.m. CST, Friday at 3:05 p.m., and Saturday at 1:05 p.m.