DEKALB – The NIU baseball team (8-19, 4-2 MAC) dropped both games of Saturday's doubleheader against Bowling Green (7-17, 3-3 MAC) to give the Falcons the series win two games to one. BGSU won game one 7-4 and game two 9-1, both after trailing early.
"Today was a long day and one we need to learn from," Head Coach
Mike Kunigonis said. "This is still a very young team in terms of the baseball minds in this program."
The Huskies jumped out to early leads in both games, scoring 3 runs in the first inning of game one and one run in the first inning of game two. The offense struggled to manufacture much more outside of the first innings, scoring only one run outside of the first innings on the day.
In game one, junior infielder
Samuel Vega blasted his second home run in as many days with a solo shot to left field to start the scoring for NIU. Freshman infielder
Tommy Szczasny then doubled followed by singles from freshman catcher
Jacob Dunham and junior DH
Jesus Tovar III.
"We are still learning a ton about the game every day," Kunigonis said. "We are learning to play with a lead, learning to play from behind and learning to put teams away when we have the chance."
Bowling Green starting pitchers Chase Antle and Zac Carey each kept the Huskies in check after each labored in their respective first innings. Antle only allowed one base runner in the second through fifth innings of game one with Carey throwing a complete game in game two allowing six hits and striking out six.
Huskie starting pitchers
Nathan Thomas and
Donovin Sims did not fare as well in their outings with each taking the loss in their respective games. Thomas pitched into the sixth inning of game one, allowing four earned runs on three hits but walking six with five strikeouts. Sims couldn't get out of the fourth inning, allowing six to score in the frame to give up seven total runs.
"We will continue to battle and learn these lessons one way or another," Kunigonis said. "We need to bounce back and get ready for a very good Milwaukee team on Tuesday."
NIU will welcome UW-Milwaukee to Ralph McKinzie field for their first midweek home game of the 2017 season. First pitch is scheduled for 3:05 p.m. CT and you can stay updated with any schedule changes on Twitter @NIU_Baseball.
