DEKALB – The NIU baseball team (15-32, 9-10 MAC) dropped the series opening game to Eastern Michigan (19-31, 10-9 MAC) 9-2 Friday afternoon. The Huskies were plagued by defensive miscues as five of the EMU runs were unearned, including the first four.
 
"We need to be better than we were today to get back in this series," Head Coach Mike Kunigonis said. "EMU is a very good team and they did was good teams do, take advantage of mistakes."
 
The Huskies committed three errors in the first three innings, all leading to Eastern Michigan runs. In the second inning the Eagles scored on a single after an error that would have ended the inning and in the third inning EMU got three runs after an error on the leadoff batter and another on a bunt.
 
NIU did tie the game up in the second inning on a solo home run from Roderick Bynum but the Huskies couldn't string multiple base runners during innings, leaving eight runners on base and grounding into two double plays.
 
"We had multiple opportunities offensively but didn't capitalize on our chances," Kunigonis said. "Add that to a poor defensive effort and you don't give yourself a very good chance to win."
 
The Huskies did get a three-hit game from freshman shortstop Tommy Szczasny who knocked two singles and a double to bump his season batting average to .293 with an .855 OPS. Luke Yapp also had a multi-hit game with a double and a single to raise his batting average up to .269 in 25 games played this year.
 
These two teams will face off two more times this weekend with NIU baseball's senior day tomorrow with a 1:05 p.m. CT schedule first pitch. Make sure to show up early as the team will honor the seniors with a pre-game ceremony.