DEKALB – The NIU baseball team (12-27, 6-6 MAC) fell in a tightly contested ball game to Minnesota (24-12, 8-4 Big Ten) 3-2 at Ralph McKinzie Field Tuesday afternoon. The Huskies left 13 runners on base with two innings having runners on second and third and two bases loaded opportunities.
 
"We had more than our fair share of opportunities offensively today but we couldn't get the big hit when we needed it," Head Coach Mike Kunigonis said.
 
The Huskies spread their eight hits out, not able to get the big knock for the big inning. Juniors Roderick Bynum and Samuel Vega had multi-hit games for NIU with Bynum going 3-3 with a run, a walk and three stolen bases, an NIU team high in 2017. Vega knocked in the Huskies' only RBI of the game with a single to center in the fifth, the other run for NIU came in the form of a wild pitch later in that inning.
 
The NIU pitchers pitched well on Tuesday with the standout being starter Nathan Thomas who went three innings allowing one hit and two walks and striking out two. The two walks came from the first two batters of the game but Thomas settled in after getting a ground ball double play and a strikeout to end the first.
 
Relief pitchers William Anderson, Andrew Frankenreider and Ryne Blanton all pitched well with Anderson pitching four of the six relief innings allowing two runs on seven hits. Frankenreider took the loss after giving up a run on two hits and Blanton kept the Huskies within a run in the ninth after walking one and striking out two.
 
"We were very good again on the mound today and are improving every outing," Kunigonis said. "We can take positives from this game but need to put the loss behind us and get ready for our series against Ball State this weekend."
 
The Huskies will remain in DeKalb this weekend to take on MAC opponent Ball State in a three-game series starting on Friday. Keep an eye on the baseball page on niuhuskies.com and Twitter @NIU_Baseball for any weather related schedule changes.