DEKALB, IL – Led by Jake Dunham's (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield North) first home run of the season, the Northern Illinois University baseball team rebounded from a Game 1 loss to earn a 3-1 win over visiting Western Michigan University, to split a doubleheader in Mid-American Conference play, Saturday afternoon.

Dunham's blast was the fourth of his career as it came in the sixth inning on a shot to left field. With the victory, NIU improved to 9-19 overall and 3-5 in the MAC.

"Great win in game two," Huskies' head coach Mike Kunigonis said. "It was a hard fought day on both sides and the scores of both games showed it."

After the Huskies fell in the opener 5-3 despite opening up a 3-0 lead, they took advantage of a few WMU miscues and overcame a 1-0 deficit in Game 2 to earn their second victory in the last four games.

An RBI double in the fifth inning put the Broncos in front, but a run-scoring double from Connor Montgomery (Newport Beach, Calif./Canyon)  in the bottom half of the frame allowed Scooter Bynum (Fairbanks, Alaska /Arizona Western College) to score, knotting the game at 1-1. Hunter Bross (Scottsdale, Ariz./Mesa Community College) then drove in Montgomery on a sacrifice fly to left field putting NIU in front for good.

"Connor did a great job collecting his first two collegiate hits with an RBI and a run scored," Kunigonis said. "Solid effort."

Freshman right-handed pitcher Michael Lasiewicz (McHenry, Ill./McHenry) was just as strong as he tossed 7 1/3 innings. He scattered five hits, and gave up one run while walking two and striking out six to up his season total to a team-best 43. Red shirt senior Andrew Frankenreider (Peoria, Ill./Dunlap) came on in relief and tossed the final 1 2/ 3 innings to earn his third save of the season.

"The combination of Mike and Andrew got the job done for us on the mound," Kunigonis said.

In Game 1, an RBI sacrifice fly from Dunham, and a two-run single from Kam Smith (Colonial Beach, Va./The Steward School) put NIU in front 3-0 in the first inning, but Western Michigan plated three in the fifth to tie the game, and a two-run home run in the ninth put the Broncos over the top.

"We need to get back at it and win the series," Kunigonis said. "George Faue will get the ball for us tomorrow."

NIU concludes the series with Western Michigan with a single game at 12 noon Sunday.

--NIU--