DEKALB – The NIU baseball team (4-15) heads back east to face ACC opponent Notre Dame Tuesday for their final midweek game before the start of conference season. The Huskies are coming off of a 2-5 spring break, earning one win in each of their weekend series, first against Saint Louis then at Michigan last weekend.
In the series against Michigan, NIU hitters were carried by players in their first year in the program, freshmen or junior college transfers. Led by junior
Roderick Bynum, who hit .438 against the Wolverines, 28 of the Huskies' 33 hits came from newcomers to the NIU baseball program. Those newcomers also drove in 15 of the 17 RBIs the Huskies had in the four games at Michigan.
Bynum went 7-16 with two doubles and three RBIs,
Samuel Vega went 6-17 with two doubles, a triple and three RBIs,
Jacob Dunham went 5-12 with a double and an RBI,
Tommy Szczasny went 3-10 with a double and thee RBIs and
Mike Roberson hit a big three-run home run in NIU's 8-5 win over Michigan last Saturday.
The Huskies' pitching staff got some good performances from starters
Donovin Sims and
Joe Hawks in Ann Arbor. Sims pitched his second-straight eight-inning performance, giving up four runs, two earned, on ten hits and two walks on Sunday where the Wolverines eventually won the game in the ninth.
Joe Hawks picked up his first win of the season on Saturday, throwing five innings allowing one run on six hits and striking out four batters.
Out of the pen, senior
Ryne Blanton made two scoreless appearances to combine for two and two thirds innings earning his second save on Saturday and pitching two and a third innings in the second game on Sunday.
Also making a quality relief appearance was freshman
Blake Walker, who will be given the ball against the Irish Tuesday for his first career start. Walker threw three shutout innings against Michigan on Thursday giving up only two hits and striking out two. This comes after he also pitched three and two thirds shutout innings in NIU's midweek game against Iowa two weeks ago.
Huskie pitchers will hope to limit the long ball after giving up five home runs in four games against the Wolverines. Three turned out to be costly, a grand slam that was part of back-to-back home runs in Michigan's seven-run inning on Thursday and a walk-off three-run home run on Sunday.
The Notre Dame offense is led by their center fielder Matt Vierling, who is hitting .338 on the season with three home runs, six doubles and 14 RBIs. Second baseman Nick Podkul is the only other Irish hitter above .300 on the season with a .329 average with six doubles and a triple this season.
NIU will head into conference play this weekend as they will head to Toledo to face the Rockets in a three-game series starting on Friday.
