Valparaiso, Ind. – The NIU baseball team (14-29, 8-7 MAC) dropped their midweek game against Valparaiso (18-25, 7-12 Horizon) by a final of 8-2 on Wednesday afternoon. The Huskies committed four errors, were only able to put six hits on the board and pitchers combined to walk 11 batters.
 
"Today was a rough day all-around," Head Coach Mike Kunigonis said. "We need to learn from these games and continue to gain experience as individuals, as a group and as a program."
 
The Huskies did jump out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first as Valparaiso starter Michael Mommersteeg walked the first four batters of the game. Then Jake Larson came in for the Crusaders and pitched five and two-thirds shutout innings out of the bullpen allowing four hits and two walks.
 
The NIU staff pitching staff struggled with walks as every pitcher that entered the game walked at least one batter. Starter Blake Walker went four innings giving up four runs, three earned on four hits, four walks and striking out three.
 
"If we learn hard lessons from our tough games, we will be better off in the long haul and we can become a tough team in the future," Kunigonis said.
 
At the plate, senior Tommy Hook is continuing to see the ball better as of late, going 1-3 today with a double, a walk and a run scored from the leadoff spot for NIU. Along with their six hits, the Huskies walked eight times but were unable to fully capitalize on opportunities in middle innings.
 
"Right now we need to learn from today and move onto our conference series this weekend," Kunigonis said. "We will have a good day of practice tomorrow and get on a bus for CMU."
 
The Huskies will head back on the road for more Mid-American Conference play this weekend for a three-game series against Central Michigan starting this Friday. After this weekend, NIU will have a midweek off before hosting Eastern Michigan in DeKalb next weekend.