DEKALB, IL – The Northern Illinois University baseball team hosts Mid-American Conference leaders Ball State this weekend, starting Friday at 3 p.m. at Ralph McKinzie Field.
 
NIU (14-29, 10-8 MAC) won its first road series of MAC play last weekend, taking two out of three games at then-first place Miami. The Huskies earned a 6-3 win on April 27 behind a solid outing on the mound from sophomore Michael Lasiewicz (McHenry, Ill./McHenry), and took the series with 11 runs in the last three innings on April 28 for a 13-3 win.
 
"When Mike took the mound Saturday, we knew he was going to give us a good start," said head coach Mike Kunigonis. "We walked in with a lot of confidence and scored three right out of the gate. It was great to get ahead and we knew Mike was going to keep us in the game. Every weekend is the same, and once game one is over, it's over whether you win or lose. You have to come in Saturday and Sunday and be ready to battle as well."
 
"We can pitch very well, we can score runs, and we can play defense," Kunigonis said. "The running theme has been trying to put the three phases together. We finally did last weekend for Saturday and Sunday. We have to continue to do that this weekend. We're as talented as any other team in this league, and we have to prove that this weekend."
 
Junior third baseman Tommy Sczcasny (Tinley Park, Ill./Lincoln-Way North) was a catalyst for NIU's offensive explosion in the last two games of the Miami series. Szczasny drew five walks and scored five runs against the RedHawks, extending a streak of reaching base safely to 15 consecutive games. Since being moved to the lead-off spot on April 5 against Ohio, Szczasny is hitting .302 with an on base percentage during this current stretch.
 
"At the time we made the move, he had the second-highest on-base percentage," said Kunigonis. "All I was trying to do was put our higher on-base percentage guys at the top of the order so they could get on base for our RBI guys."
 
Ball State (28-15, 12-4 MAC) moved into first place in the MAC last weekend with a sweep of Bowling Green. The Cardinals won the three games against the Falcons by a combined four runs. Junior outfielder Aaron Simpson leads Ball State in hitting with a .349 batting average. Shortstop Ross Messina is tied for third in the MAC with 44 RBI and tied for seventh with six home runs. Sophomore pitcher Drey Jameson leads the conference with 104 strikeouts and an opposing batting average of .206. As a team, Ball State leads the conference with 477 strikeouts but has allowed the second-most walks with 235.
 
"They're going to be similar to the guys we faced last Friday and Saturday at Miami," Kunigonis said. "Their weekend arms have some pretty good stuff with velocity. We tell our hitters all the time 'make them throw strikes'. When you look at our team's success and failures, when we throw strikes we have a good chance to win. When we don't throw strikes, it's going to be tough. You can't give free bases. We've done a pretty good job of making guys throw strikes against us and hopefully we don't chase a ton, but that's something we work on every day in practice."
 
The series begins Friday at 3 p.m., with first pitch Saturday at 1 p.m. and a 12 p.m. start on Sunday.
 
--NIU--