ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The NIU baseball team (9-22, 5-4 MAC) won a game and lost a game in Sunday's doubleheader against Buffalo (10-17, 3-3 MAC) that was played at Monroe Community College in Rochester. The Huskies won game one 2-1 and dropped game two 3-1 as they only totaled 11 hits on the day.
"We didn't see much production out of our offense the entire weekend," Head Coach
Mike Kunigonis said. "It was a tough day for the bats all around."
In game one, the Huskies got a quality start from freshman RHP
Nathan Thomas who went six innings giving up one run on three hits and three walks, striking out four batters. Relievers
George Faue and
Ryne Blanton combined to pitch the final three innings to lock up the win for NIU as Blanton notched his third save of the year getting the final five outs.
Huskie runs came in the third inning when
Tommy Hook led off the inning with a sharp single to right then score when
Tommy Szczasny smoked a double into the right center field gap. Szczasny would later score from third on an attempted double steal with a runner on first as well drawing the throw.
"Nate [Thomas] gave us a quality start on the mound and gave us a chance to win that first game," Kunigonis said. "We fell behind early in game two and couldn't recover."
In game two, the third inning was good for the Bulls as they collected four hits in the inning to score two runs off of starting pitcher
Donovin Sims. They added a solo home run in the fourth inning to take a 3-0 lead at that point and didn't look back.
The Huskies run in game two was also scored on a double steal after
Alec Barger ripped a triple into left center with one out then performed the double steal with
Brad Wood, who went 2-2 with a walk in game two.
"We had multiple opportunities to get a few more but it wasn't meant to be," Kunigonis said. "We will dust ourselves off and get ready for a very difficult week ahead."
NIU will head back to DeKalb for four-straight home games starting this Tuesday against UIC then a weekend series against preseason MAC favorite Kent State. Game times are subject to change due to weather, for the latest updates check niuhuskies.com and Twitter @NIU_Baseball.