THE NEED TO KNOWS
NIU (2-5) @ SIUE (4-4)
Edwardsville, Ill. (Roy Lee Field)
Friday, March 3 – 3 p.m.
Saturday, March 4 (Doubleheader) – 1 p.m.
Sunday, March 5 – 1 p.m.
Live Stats: SIUECougars.com
 
DEKALB – The NIU baseball will hit the road this weekend as they travel to Edwardsville, Ill. to face SIU-Edwardsville for four games over the weekend.
 
The Huskies are coming off of a 1-2 weekend in Oklahoma with their win coming in their final game of the weekend against Villanova last Sunday.  The win came in comeback fashion as NIU was down 4-1 before scoring four runs in the fifth inning and adding another in the sixth to win by a final of 6-4.
 
Senior Jason Gasser got the big hit for NIU in the fifth driving in the tying and go-ahead runs with a two-out single in the fifth. Gasser and junior Jesus Tovar III each had a three-hit game against Villanova and Tovar now has the team's best batting average through seven games, hitting .423 with four RBIs this season.
 
The Huskies will stick with the same starting rotation they've used in the first two weeks of the season as William Anderson will take the ball on Friday, Joe Hawks and Nathan Thomas will pitch the doubleheader on Saturday and Donovin Sims will start the series finale on Sunday. Anderson is coming off of a quality start against Boston College but drew the loss after throwing six and a third innings, allowing three runs on three hits.
 
Thomas will return to the mound for the second game on Saturday after earning a win in his first collegiate start last Wednesday against Chicago State. Sims earned his first victory of 2017 against Villanova, throwing five innings and allowing four runs.
 
NIU's bullpen shut down the Wildcats on Sunday as the combination of senior Ryne Blanton and redshirt junior Andrew Frankenreider combined to throw four shutout innings with Frankenreider recording his first save of 2017.
 
SIUE's offense is lead by senior infielder Alec Skender, who is hitting .344 in the Cougars' eight games this season with 11 hits, five runs scored, two RBIs and a homerun. SIUE will send out a starting rotation of Nelson Martz on Friday, Brock Fulkerson and Danny Ehrsam on Saturday and Brendan Miller on Sunday. Ehrsam has been the Cougars' best starting in 2017 so far with a 2-0 record and a 0.75 ERA in 12 innigs.
 
This will be NIU's last week without a mid-week game until the conference season and will have a game on either Tuesday or Wednesday for the next nine weeks. HuskieBall fans can follow the team on Instagram @niu_baseball and on Twitter @NIU_Baseball.