Final Stats | Final Stats (PDF) |  Photo Gallery 

DeKALB - With strong hitting and solid pitching, NIU (8-21, 4-3 MAC) dispatched Central Michigan (6-25, 1-3 MAC) in the series opener at Ralph McKinzie Field, 9-6. Despite the cold conditions, the Huskies outhit the Chippewas, 12-11, and scored in each of the last four innings.

Freshman hurler William Anderson (Columbus, Ind./Columbus East) fanned a career-high eight batters in 6.0 innings to earn his third win of the season while Ryne Blanton (Spring Grove, Ill./Madison College) picked up his fourth save. Brian Sisler (DeKalb, Ill./DeKalb) went 4-for-5 at the plate with two doubles, two RBI and a run. Tommy Hook (Lockport, Ill./Lockport Township) went 2-for-2 with two walks, two RBI, a run and a sacrifice fly.

“It’s always great to win game one. I’m glad that we battled through some tough conditions and some early adversity. It was great to see the offense get back to battling and through in clutch situations. We need to be ready to battle again tomorrow and win the series,” said Head Coach Mike Kunigonis.

The Huskies scratched one across in the second inning to take an early lead as Brandon Mallder (Bridgeview, Ill./St. Laurence), who also drove home two runs, led the inning with a walk and scored on a double steal with Tony Brandner (Colgate, Wis./Winthrop) deking out the shortstop and the second baseman to allow Mallder to jog home with the ball sailing into the outfield on the throw.

Central Michigan responded with two runs of its own in the fourth as it loaded the bases with a leadoff double and two-straight infield hits. The first run would scratch across on a balk by Anderson, advancing all runners 90 feet. A fielder’s choice would scratch the next run but Johnny Zubek (Oak Forest, Ill./Oak Forest) would catch a runner stealing second to limit the damage.

Northern Illinois University would tally 11 hits in its final frames, started  by a four-hit fifth inning as it loaded the bases with two outs. A bloop single by Mallder over the third baseman would score Brad Wood (Orland Park, Ill./St. Laurence) and Hook to put the Huskies back in front. Stephen Letz (Dyer, Ind./South Suburban College) would knock home the final run of the stanza on a deep chopper to the shortstop, reaching first for single, 4-2.

After a Luke Yapp (Verona, Wis./Madison College) single and Zubek sacrifice bunt in the sixth, Hook singled with two outs to score Yapp from second. Joey Ceja’s (Ottawa, Ill./Heartland CC) shutdown pitching in the seventh set up a pair of leadoff double’s in the bottom half of the inning by Justin Fletcher (Pekin, Ill./Illinois Central) and Sisler to push NIU’s lead to four, 6-2.

Central Michigan made a late push as it scored a run in the eighth and three in the ninth on a home run by Daniel Jipping but the damage had already been done as Blanton came on for the Huskies and retired the three batters he faced in 10 pitches to improve to 4-for-4 in save opportunities.

Yapp finished the game 2-of-4 at the plate with two runs, sharing the game-high in runs with Wood who also passed home twice. Ceja tossed 2.0 innings, surrendering two hits and zero earned runs.

NIU and CMU will close the series tomorrow in a doubleheader at Ralph McKinzie Field, starting at noon Central.