DEKALB, IL – The Northern Illinois University baseball team opened its weekend series against the Ball State Cardinals Friday afternoon with a 6-2 loss at Ralph McKinzie Field.
 
"Friday night's are going to be tight games, and that's what this was," said head coach Mike Kunigonis. "I think the score doesn't really dictate how tight the game was. We have to make the necessary adjustments, come out tomorrow and battle."
 
NIU (14-30, 10-9 MAC) got off to a fast start Friday. Senior starting pitcher William Anderson (Columbus, Ind./Columbus East) threw eight pitchers to retire Ball State in order in the top of the first. Tommy Szczasny (Tinley Park, Ill./Lincoln-Way North) led off the bottom of the first with his second home run of the season, off the second pitch from Cardinals starting pitcher Drey Jameson, to give NIU a 1-0 lead. The Huskies had a chance to put another run on the board with two outs and runners at the corners, but Dylan Lonteen (Peoria, Ill./Illinois Central College) was caught stealing home as part of a double steal to end the inning.
 
Ball State (29-15, 13-4 MAC) took the lead in the top of the second. Andre Orselli reached on an error to lead off the frame, then scored on an RBI double by John Ricotta. Mack Murphy then put down a sacrifice bunt to move Ricotta to third base. Chase Sebby then drove in Ricotta with an infield single to give the Cardinals a 2-1 lead. NIU tied the game in the bottom of the third. Lonteen reached on a single to left field with two outs, followed by a Jameson walk to Jake Dunham (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield North). Nick Drobushevich (Moline, Ill./Moline) then laced a single through the right side of the infield, scoring Lonteen to make the score 2-2. Drobushevich was thrown out at second trying to stretch his hit to a double, ending the inning.
 
"We came out well, but we shouldn't have allowed their first two runs to score," said Kunigonis. "We make an error on a routine groundball and they follow it up with a double. You've got to play clean defense against the number one team in the league."
 
The Cardinals broke the tie in the top of the fourth. Orselli led off the frame with a single. Ricotta then launched a two-run home run over the left centerfield fence to put Ball State ahead 4-2. Anderson then got Murphy and Sebby to fly out for the first two outs of the inning. Ryan Peltier singled to left field to keep the inning alive for Justin Conant, who tripled to left center to make the score 5-2.
 
Jameson took over from there for Ball State. The sophomore right-hander recorded 13 strikeouts in the next five innings, allowing no hits with one walk and one hit batter. Ball State tacked on a run in the top of the eighth to make the score 6-2. The bullpen duo of Lukas Jaksich and Brendan Burns struck out the side in the ninth for the Cardinals to take game one of the series.
 
"He's a good arm," Kunigonis said about Jameson. "He's a really good pitcher. He's got 120-some odd strikeouts on the year and there's a reason for that. We were on him early, but we allowed him to settle in and then we got away from our approach that made us successful in the first three innings.
 
Jameson struck out 16 NIU batters over eight innings, allowing two runs on six hits. Lonteen, Drobushevich, and Kam Smith (Colonial Beach, Va./The Steward School) each had two hits for NIU.
 
The middle game of the weekend set is set for 1 p.m. Saturday.
 
--NIU--