April 10, 2011
Final Stats
Final Box in PDF Format 
Northern Illinois 2, Miami (Ohio) 0
Ralph McKinzie Field | DeKalb, Ill.
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W: Gonzales (4-4) L: Fiala (2-4) |
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DeKALB, Ill. - Jeremy Gonzales was nearly perfect during Northern Illinois' 2-0 victory that secured a 2-1 Mid-American Conference series win over Miami (Ohio) on Sunday afternoon at Ralph McKinzie Field.
"One game does not make a series," said NIU head coach Ed Mathey. "We didn't do much offensively in the first game and we responded yesterday and that makes Sunday a lot of fun. We did a decent job with bats today on a day that wasn't a hitter's day. Wind blowing at the back of the pitcher doesn't help the hitters. The big thing was Gonzo, though. That was a pretty special performance."
The senior retired every RedHawk in order through 5.2 innings before a sharp liner to right field by Jon Edgington broke up Gonazales' bid for a perfect game. The hit did not break his focus, though. Extending his scoreless innings streak to 25.2 innings, the MAC's hottest pitcher put together his first career complete game shutout, marking the fifth shutout for the Huskies (13-16, 6-3 MAC) this season. The last time NIU had five shutouts in a season was in 1996. Prior to the first shutout of the year on March 16 against North Dakota, the Huskies had gone 108 games between shutouts. All five in 2011 have come in a 19-game stretch.
Furthering the details on Gonzales extraordinary day and third career complete game, the righty retired the side in order in every inning except the sixth, eighth and ninth as he allowed just three hits and fanned a season-high seven. He also only fell into four full-counts as he threw 109 pitches, 73 for strikes, to the 30 batters he faced. Gonzales is the first Huskie hurler to allow no walks in a game since 2007.
Of the 20 outs in the field, 15 were on fly balls. On a day where the wind was steadily blowing in around 20-30 MPH the whole game, the fly ball pitcher received plenty of help from the wind as fly balls that may have been trouble on a less windy day were held up by the gusts and allowed the Huskies to camp underneath.
The only time Miami (16-16, 5-4 MAC) got close to scoring is when Gonzales was at his best. After Adam Weisenburger led off the eighth inning with a double to left, Gonzales induced a fly out to center off the bat of Kevin Bower. He then recorded swinging strikeouts against Brad Gschwind and Ryan Kaup to end the threat, and pumped his fist twice emphatically as he walked off the mound.
Being absolutely in the zone, Gonzales surrendered a two-out single to pinch-hitter Nate Bowles in the ninth, and once again, got Bryce Redeker swinging to end the game as he pumped his fist a final time with his teammates running out to mob him on the mound in congratulatory fashion.
Enabling Gonzales to earn his third win in a row and even his record to 4-4 on the year was a two-run fourth inning, much like yesterday's win. With two outs, Jeff Zimmerman singled to right to extend his NIU season-best hitting streak to 10 games. Alex Klonowski backed it up with a double to left that rolled to the wall after Marcus Makuch's dive came up empty. Zimmerman scored easily on the play. Gonzales' battery mate, Brian Riegler, then delivered a sharp single off third baseman Gschwind's glove to bring home Klonowski.
As he continues to excel in his role as the third weekend starter for NIU, Gonzales has at least six starts left and a good chance to eclipse the 4-4 record he put up last year in his first year with the Huskies. Spending most of his time as the No. 2 weekend starter in 2010, Gonzales has blossomed as a No. 3 starter in 2011, especially since the start of the MAC schedule. In his three starts during MAC play, Gonzales has gone 3-0 and has yet to allow a run. In 24 innings, he has given up just 11 hits and five walks with 18 strikeouts and has held hitters to a measly .136 batting average.
"[Jeremy Gonzales] has been great [in his scoreless streak]," Mathey said. "You can attribute it to throwing strikes and relying on his defense. He still gets his strike out chances, but he's not trying to not pitch to contact. He's the guy that hitters walk away from saying, `boy, I should've gotten a hit.' He doesn't have 92 MPH fastball and killer slider, but the fastball, change-up and slider he throws with location works well for him. He and [pitching coach] Ray Napientek have done a great job in making some adjustments this year."
Each of Gonzales' MAC starts has come with different stipulations. His first win came on March 27 at home against Bowling Green -- a seven inning performance that salvaged the finale of the series for NIU. His second win was on April 3 at Buffalo as he closed out a sweep for NIU with eight effective innings. His third victory gave the Huskies the rubber match edge, locking down their second MAC series in as many weekends. NIU's 6-3 record in league play is the best the Huskies have stood nine games into the conference schedule since 2007.
With a 3-2 five-game home stand complete, NIU hits the road for its next six games. The Huskies will put their 5-4 road record to the test starting with a 3 p.m. CT contest against Illinois State on Tuesday, April 12.
-NIU-
