YPSILANTI, MI – Despite a stellar effort from senior left-handed pitcher George Faue (Corcoan, Minn./Iowa Central), the Northern Illinois University baseball team couldn't figure host Eastern Michigan as the Eagles escaped with a 2-1 win in the first game of a three-game set Thursday night.

Faue tossed the first complete game of his two-year Huskie career – and the second for an NIU hurler this season – as he scattered six hits. He gave up one earned run and fanned six batters in his final appearance on the mound.

"George was fantastic today," Huskies' head coach Mike Kunigonis said. "He deserved to win this game. He ended his NIU career with one of his best outings in a Huskie uniform."

NIU, which fell to 19-35 overall and 8-17 in the Mid-American Conference, had its opportunities to push across the go-ahead run, but stranded 12 runners on base. The Huskies loaded the bases with two outs in the sixth when Hunter Bross (Scottsdale, Ariz./Mesa Community College), Scooter Bynum (Fairbanks, Alaska /Arizona Western College) and Samuel Vega (Vega Baja, Puerto Rico/Southwestern Junior College) singled, but the next batter flied out to center field to end the threat. NIU then put a runner in scoring position with two outs in the ninth when Kam Smith (Colonial Beach, Va./The Steward School) connected for a double, but the threat ended on a strikeout.

"We didn't execute offensively and made too many errors to overcome," Kunigonis said. "We were on the barrel from the first at bat of the game but couldn't get a hit when it meant the most with runners in in scoring position."

Eastern Michigan plated both its runs in the sixth inning on RBI double, and two Huskie errors. NIU's lone run came in the seventh when Tommy Szczasny (Tinley Park, Ill./Lincoln-Way North) led off with a triple and scored on Smith's RBI groundout to the shortstop.

"Kam did a great job of cashing in on his RBI and hitting a double in the ninth to give us a chance," Kunigonis said. "But we just came up short."

Szczasny and Joe Jumonville (Munster, Ind./Munster) each had three hits apiece for the Huskies while Vega, Smith and Ty Jandrowski (Kenosha, Wis./Madison College) each had two. Jake Dunham (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield North) finished 0 for 5 at the plate and unfortunately ended his streak of reaching base safely at 21 straight games.   

"We need to bounce back and get back in the series tomorrow," Kunigonis said.
Freshman RHP Michael Lasiewicz (McHenry, Ill./McHenry) will take the mound for the Huskies. First pitch is scheduled for 5 p.m. CT.

--NIU--