CARBONDALE, IL – The Northern Illinois University baseball team suffered a doubleheader sweep against Southern Illinois University by scores of 10-4 and 7-2 Saturday afternoon at Itchy Jones Stadium.

SIU swept the weekend as the Huskies fell to 4-10 on the year, losing their fourth-straight game.

"It was a tough day for HuskieBall," Huskies' head coach Mike Kunigonis said. "We need to have a good couple of days of practice and regroup for our next game at UIC."

Despite the losses, red shirt freshman Kam Smith had a breakout performance as the Colonial Beach, Virginia native had a .571 batting average (4 for 7) with four RBI, and his first career home run. Smith capped a four-run comeback after NIU was down 3-0 in Game 1, and gave the Huskies a one-run advantage when he connected for a two-run single through the left side, allowing both Scooter Bynum (Fairbanks, Alaska /Arizona Western College) and Samuel Vega (Vega Baja, Puerto Rico/Southwestern Junior College) to score. Prior to that, Smith came through in the clutch in the sixth when he trimmed SIU's lead to 3-2 on a two-run home run to right field.

In Game 2, NIU took an early 1-0 lead without the benefit of a hit in the first when Brad Wood (Orland Park, Ill./St. Laurence) reached on an error and advanced to second, moved to third on Smith's reach on an error and scored on Vega's RBI sacrifice fly to right field.

From there however, the contest belonged to the Salukis as SIU plated three runs in both the third and fourth innings, and chased Huskies' starting pitcher Michael Lasiewicz (McHenry, Ill./McHenry) in three innings. Lasiewicz suffered his second loss of the season as he evened his record to 2-2. He struck out four batters

"We need to learn to win games and play complete games," Kunigonis said. "I believe in this group and their abilities."

Other top offensive performers for the Huskies were Joe Jumonville (Munster, Ind./Munster), who combined to go 3 for 8, while Tommy Washington (Chicago, Ill./Harlan) went 2 for 4 with an RBI single in the eighth inning of the second game. Both Bynum and Vega had two hits apiece.

"We need to forget this series and move on." Kunigonis said. "There are better days ahead."

NIU returns to action Wednesday when it travels to the University of Illinois-Chicago for a 4:05 p.m. single game.

--NIU--