ATHENS, OH – Ohio University scored early and often as they rolled to a series' win over the Northern Illinois University baseball team with a 12-4 win in the finale Sunday afternoon.
The Bobcats connected for 17 hits, and scored four or more runs in the third and fourth innings in earning their 14th win of the season. NIU fell to 8-18 overall, and 2-4 in the Mid-American Conference.
"Tough day for us today," Huskies' head coach
Mike Kunigonis said. "Ohio did a good job of battling for every at bat and finding holes. Unfortunately we couldn't stop the bleeding early in the game."
Sophomore
Blake Walker (Indianapolis, Ind./Bishop Chatard) suffered the loss on the mound as he worked only two innings. NIU used six different pitchers, but unfortunately couldn't figure Ohio's high octane offense as the Bobcats connected for two three-run home runs.
"We had three solid performances at the back end of the game that led to a string of zeros by [Nate] Thomas, [Jacob] DeLabio and [William] Anderson," Kunigonis said. "So that was good to see."
NIU pushed across a pair of runs in both the sixth and seventh innings. Both
Samuel Vega (Vega Baja, Puerto Rico/Southwestern Junior College) and
Jake Dunham (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield North) connected for run-scoring singles in the sixth inning, while
Tommy Washington (Chicago, Ill./Harlan) drove in
Kam Smith (Colonial Beach, Va./The Steward School) on his reach on an error, and
Brad Wood (Orland Park, Ill./St. Laurence) had an RBI sacrifice fly.
Of NIU's six hits,
Tommy Szczasny (Tinley Park, Ill./Lincoln-Way North), Vega, Dunham,
Scooter Bynum (Fairbanks, Alaska /Arizona Western College), Smith and
Josh Mutter (Frankfort, Ill. /Lincoln-Way North) each had a hit.
"We need to build on the positives and get back to work next week," Kunigonis said. "We start a good home stand on Tuesday and I'm looking forward to battling back into the MAC play."
NIU returns home Tuesday when it steps out of MAC play to host UW-Milwaukee at Ralph McKinzie Field for a 3 p.m. single game.
--NIU--
