EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The NIU baseball team (12-26, 6-6 MAC) won two games Sunday afternoon against the University of Evansville (13-25, 4-5 MVC). Their first win came in a 5-2 effort as a continuation game from Friday that was stopped due to rain and in their full game, the Huskies won 1-0 behind the arms of
Donovin Sims and
Andrew Frankenreider.
"It took us three days to get a win but we grinded away and got it," Head Coach
Mike Kunigonis said. "Then to battle the way we did to win the second game was fantastic."
In the 5-2 win, the Huskies ended Friday's six and a half innings up 2-1 behind six quality innings from
Joe Hawks and a 2-3 day from
Tommy Szczasny. On Sunday as the game was continued from the bottom of the seventh, the Huskies scored three runs in the eighth, one on a wild pitch and two on a single by
Joe Jumonville. Pitching in relief of Hawks were
George Faue for an inning and two-thirds and
Ryne Blanton for the next inning and a third for Blanton to get his fourth save of the year.
"The staff as a whole was very good all weekend, starting with Hawks on Friday with George giving us a quality outing and Blanton shutting the door behind him," Kunigonis said. "Sims was nothing less than great and Frank looked like vintage, unhittable Frank."
In the full game 1-0 win, Sims went seven and two-thirds innings allowing only four hits and two walks while striking out two. Frankenreider pitched the inning and a third in relief for his second save of the year and struck out one batter.
The only run for NIU was scored in the second inning after back-to-back singles from Jumonville and
Mike Roberson to lead off the inning, a sacrifice bunt from
Roderick Bynum and an RBI groundout from
Brad Wood. Jumonville got two of the six Huskie hits in the game but that's all they needed.
"It was a very tough weekend to hit and we grinded for every run we had," Kunigonis said. "We need to carry this momentum into next week and be ready for a Big Ten battle on Tuesday and a MAC battle on the weekend."
The Huskies will return home to play four-straight games at Ralph McKinzie Field starting on Tuesday against Minnesota then a three-game MAC series against Ball State. Any schedule updates will be announced on niuhuskies.com and on Twitter @NIU_Baseball.