DEKALB, IL – The Northern Illinois University baseball team opened Mid-American Conference play with a doubleheader loss to visiting Central Michigan University by scores of 6-0 and 8-1 Friday afternoon at Ralph McKinzie Field.

The Chippewas combined for 20 runs and took advantage of a few uncharacteristic NIU fielding errors to extend their winning streak to six games. NIU fell to 5-16 on the year.

"Today was a tough day for us," Huskies' head coach Mike Kunigonis said. "We weren't able to carry the momentum over from our midweek win."

In Game 1, junior RHP Tanner Foster (St. Charles, Iowa/Southeastern Community College) got off to a strong start as he retired eight of the first nine batters he faced, but CMU tagged Foster with two hits and a run in the fourth inning. Three more came across in the sixth inning before the Chippewas added single tallies in both the seventh and ninth innings to finish off the scoring.

Foster worked five innings, and scattered four hits while striking out seven batters and walking three. He moved his overall record to 1-2.

After a rough first inning in the second game where CMU plated a pair of runs, senior RHP Donovin Sims (Roscoe, Ill./Hononegah Community) retired six of the next seven batters he faced, and later six in a row at one point before he yielded a two-run triple in the sixth inning. Four more runs came across in the ninth for the Chippewas as they earned their eighth win of the season.

Redshirt junior Hunter Bross (Scottsdale, Ariz./Mesa Community College) highlighted the offense for the Huskies in the sixth when he roped an inside-the-park home run to right field for his second home run of the season. For Bross it was his first career inside-the-park home run and the first for a Huskie since the 2014 season.

Tommy Szczasny (Tinley Park, Ill./Lincoln-Way North) led the offense Game 2 with a pair of hits, while Brad Wood (Orland Park, Ill./St. Laurence) went nearly perfect (3 for 4) at the plate in the first game. Samuel Vega (Vega Baja, Puerto Rico/Southwestern Junior College) also had a pair of hits in Game 1.

"We need to battle back and get a win in Game 3," Kunigonis said.

The final game of the series will take place Sunday afternoon at 12 noon in DeKalb.
 
--NIU--