SAN ANTONIO, TX. – Despite Ben Wood's (Orland Park, Ill./St. Laurence) second home run in the last two games, the Northern Illinois University baseball team fell to the University of Incarnate Word 7-5 Sunday afternoon at Sullivan Field.
Wood cracked a two-run shot – his second this season and the fourth of his career – which closed NIU's deficit to 5-3 in the fifth, but Incarnate Word plated single runs in the bottom half of the fifth and the eighth inning to take the series' win.
"Not how we wanted to end our weekend, but we battled for nine innings," Huskies' head coach
Mike Kunigonis said. "They are a good team, and made us pay for every mistake we made all weekend."
Freshman pitcher
Michael Lasiewicz (McHenry, Ill./McHenry) suffered his first loss of the season. He tossed 3 1/3 innings, and struck out three batters while walking only one in moving his record to 2-1 on the year.
UIW pulled ahead 4-0 in the third with three run-scoring singles, but the Huskies cut into the deficit in the fourth when
Scooter Bynum (Fairbanks, Alaska /Arizona Western College) walked, stole second and took third on a throwing error by the second baseman, and scored on
Joe Jumonville's (Munster, Ind./Munster) RBI sacrifice fly to center field.
After the Cardinals added another run in the fourth, Wood connected for his two-run shot with one out as
Hunter Bross came home on the play. In all, the Huskies smacked eight hits.
"We had trouble controlling their big innings and couldn't stop the bleeding in the fourth," Kunigonis said. "If we eliminate those mistakes the outcome would be a little different but unfortunately that wasn't the case."
Bross finished 3 for 5 with two RBI and two runs scored, while
Tommy Szczasny (Tinley Park, Ill./Lincoln-Way North),
Samuel Vega (Vega Baja, Puerto Rico/Southwestern Junior College),
Jake Dunham (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield North), Jumonville and
Ty Jandrowski (Kenosha, Wis./Madison College) each had a hit. NIU fell to 4-7 on the year.
"We will regroup the next few days and get back at it and ready for next weekend," Kunigonis said.
NIU returns to action March 9-11 when it travels to Carbondale, Illinois to take on Southern Illinois University in a three-game series, starting Friday afternoon at 3 p.m.
--NIU--
