DEKALB – The NIU baseball team (7-16, 3-0 MAC) will return to action in a midweek matchup against the UIC Flames (13-7, 5-1 Horizon) on Tuesday at 4:05 p.m. The Huskies hope to continue successful play coming off of their three-game sweep of Toledo over the weekend.
NIU's offense was led by freshman catcher
Jacob Dunham, who was named MAC West Player of the Week on Monday, in the three-game series. Dunham hit .750 in the three games against Toledo and .600 for the week with nine hits in 15 at bats to earn his first career conference honor.
Dunham was not the only Huskie bat that made a mark against Toledo, as six players hit .300 or better in the sweep. Infielder
Samuel Vega, currently on a team-high 11-game hitting streak, batted .429 with six singles against the Rockets. The Huskies cracked ten extra base hits against Toledo with two home runs, one from
Jesus Tovar III and
Tommy Szczasny's second of the year.
The NIU pitching staff was led by three pitchers who combined to throw 20 of the team's 29 innings played over the weekend.
Donovin Sims and
Joe Hawks each earned wins with Sims going six innings on Sunday and Hawks pitching a career-high seven innings on Friday. Freshman
Nathan Thomas stepped up for the Huskies on Saturday, throwing seven shutout innings in relief to help NIU climb back from a 4-0 deficit after the first inning.
Senior pitchers
Ryne Blanton and
Aaron Rumfield each threw 2.2 innings out of the bullpen for NIU against Toledo with Blanton earning the win on Saturday getting a bases loaded double play in the ninth and pitching the 10th and 11th scoreless.
Rumfield threw an inning on Friday and an inning and two thirds on Sunday giving up only one run on one hit and one walk. Junior lefty
George Faue also earned his first NIU save on Sunday pitching a inning and a third scoreless.
The Huskies will start
Andrew Frankenreider on Tuesday against the Flames for his first start of 2017. Frankenreider has pitched 11.2 innings for NIU this season with a 7.71 ERA in his first season back from an arm injury.
UIC's offense is powered by the long ball as they have 20 home runs this season as five different players have multiple home runs this season with infielder Ricardo Ramirez leading the way with five. The Flames will start right-hander Jacob Key on the mound against the Huskies. Key has a 2.18 ERA in 20.2 innings pitched and a 2-0 record.
They have two top-ten wins this season as UIC took two of three games from Vanderbilt, the then seventh ranked team in the country. Both Flames' wins came in games that went into extra innings with an 11-inning affair in game one and going ten innings in game two.
NIU baseball will play their first home games of the year this weekend at Ralph McKinzie Field starting this Friday at 3:05 p.m., Saturday at 1:05 p.m. and Sunday at 12:05 p.m. against Bowling Green. All Sunday home games have moved their start times to 12:05 p.m. opposed to the originally scheduled times of 1:05 p.m.
