ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The NIU baseball team (2-12) dropped both ends of their Friday doubleheader to Saint Louis University. The Billikens scored 18 runs in the two games, with all but one of their runs coming in only four different innings.
 
"We need to keep battling and keep playing," Head Coach Mike Kunigonis said. "We need to stick with the process until we bust out of this funk."
 
Game two of the day was a back and forth battle as the Huskies held leads at two different times, going up 2-0 in the first inning and regaining the lead at 5-4 in the sixth. Both leads were short lived as Saint Louis scored four in the second inning, one in the sixth to the tie game and five more in the seventh to bust it open.
 
Senior Joe Hawks got the start in game two, going five and two thirds innings giving up five runs, four earned, on eight hits with an NIU season high ten strikeouts. Six of the Huskies' starting nine recorded a hit with freshman outfielder Alec Barger leading the charge with two hits in five at bats.
 
In game one, William Anderson got the start and was knocked out in the second inning after allowing five runs. Freshmen pitchers Jacob Delabio and Eric Hammer each made their first collegiate appearances on the mound in relief. Each threw shutout innings with Delabio going three scoreless and Hammer pitching a shutdown eighth inning.
 
"We saw some good things from our younger guys on the mound again today," Kunigonis said. "We need to build off the positives and continue to work every day."
 
Brad Wood, Joe Jumonville, Roderick Bynum and Samuel Vega all had two hits in the game with the Huskies outhitting Saint Louis but just couldn't put a rally together. NIU will finish their series in St. Louis on Sunday at noon with Donovin Sims getting the start for the Huskies.