TOLEDO, Ohio – The NIU baseball team (5-16, 1-0 MAC) won their Mid-American Conference opener 16-2 over Toledo on Friday. All nine Huskies in the batting order scored a run with all but two batters registering at least two hits.
 
"It was great getting out of the gate and starting MAC play on a high note," Head Coach Mike Kunigonis said. "We'll feel good going into tomorrow, put this game behind us now and get ready for game two."
 
NIU had two five-run innings powered by the long ball in each the fourth and ninth innings. Every inning the Huskies put runs on the board, they scored multiple times, score two runs in three other innings than the five-run outbursts.
 
In the fourth, Tommy Szczasny led off with a towering solo shot to right field to give NIU a 3-1 lead at the time then mixed in three singles and two walks to score the other four. In the ninth, Jesus Tovar III hit his first home run of the season for a two-run shot to left, followed by a walk, a single and an RBI double by Tommy Hook.
 
"It's nice to see the type of offensive output we got today," Kunigonis said. "We had quality at bat after quality at bat and we need to continue doing that for the rest of the weekend."
 
It was not all offense for the Huskies as starter Joe Hawks earned his second-straight win to move his record to 2-2 on the season. Hawks went seven quality innings, giving up two runs on nine hits while striking out five batters on the night.
 
"Hawks was awesome today, he came out of the gate ready to go and gave us what we needed," Kunigonis said. "He gave us an opportunity to win if the bats didn't do what they did, he did a great job."
 
The series will continue tomorrow at 2:05 central time with William Anderson slated to get the start for NIU and Ross Achter projected to pitch for Toledo. HuskieBall fans can follow the team on Instagram @niu_baseball and on Twitter @NIU_Baseball.