HOUSTON – The Northern Illinois University baseball team suffered a pair of close losses Saturday at Reckling Park, falling 3-1 to the Kansas State in 10 innings and 4-1 to the Rice Owls.
"This is not the way we wanted to close out our early non-conference schedule but we have shown some glimpses of what this team can be," said head coach
Mike Kunigonis. "We have battled against some extremely tough opponents. Our defense is starting to play at a high level and we're receiving some of the best starting pitching I've seen in a long time. Our offense is due to bust out in a huge way."
For the second straight day, NIU (1-10) was locked in a pitcher's duel with Kansas State. The Wildcats got on the board first in the top of the first when rightfielder Zach Kokoska touched NIU starter
Brandon McPherson (Chicago, Ill./Wabash Valley College) for a solo home run to give Kansas State a 1-0 lead.
From there, McPherson and Wildcats starter Carson Seymour started dealing as the score stayed that way though the next five innings. McPherson struck out eight Wildcats over the first six innings while Seymour allowed just three Huskie baserunners over his first five innings. The Huskies threatened in the sixth when third baseman
Dylan Lonteen (Peoria, Ill./Illinois Central College) banged out his second hit on the day and moved to third on two wild pitches. Seymour left him at third by getting
Jake Dunham (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield North) to fly out to end the inning.
NIU tied the game at 1-1 in the bottom of the seventh.
Kam Smith (Colonial Beach, Va./The Steward School) got things started with a triple to lead off the inning, and scampered home on a wild pitch to put NIU on the board.
Neither team could get anything going over the next two innings, so the game headed to the 10
th inning. With one out in the top of the frame, Kokoska singled to center and advanced to second on a balk. Two batters later, leftfielder Dylan Phillips delivered a two-run homer to right-center that gave Kansas State (10-4) a 3-1 lead. Eric Torres retired the Huskies in order in the bottom of the 10
th to secure the win.
McPherson was brilliant in his second start of the season, tossing eight innings while allowing just one run on six hits while striking out a career-high nine batters.
Tristan Michaels (Barrington, Ill./Triton College) came on in the ninth and allowed the two go-ahead runs in the 10th to take the loss. Lonteen was 2-for-4 at the plate against the Wildcats with
Kam Smith going 1-for-3 with a run scored and a walk.
"Brandon was fantastic for us today," Kunigonis said. "He deserved better than what he got. We had a couple chances but couldn't find a way to get another run across."
Rice (7-7) scored first in the nightcap in the bottom of the second. Antonio Cruz led off with a triple. With one out, Austin Bulman drew a walk. Bulman then tried to advance to second and got in a rundown which allowed Cruz to score and put the Owls ahead 1-0. Rice starting pitcher Mitchell Holcomb kept the Huskies' bats in check for the first seven innings. Holcomb scattered five hits in 7.2 innings of work, striking out four with no walks.
The Owls scored twice in the bottom of the fifth and added another run in the sixth to take a 4-0 lead. NIU scored a late run in the ninth on a two-out RBI single from catcher
Jacob Schroeder (Flossmoor, Ill./Homewood-Flossmoor).
Paddy McKermitt (Hampshire, Ill./Burlington Central) and
Eric Erato (Sussex, Wis./Sussex Hamilton) were both 2-for-3 at the plate against Rice.
Connor Langreder (West De Pere, Wis./West De Pere) allowed one run over four innings on the mound, striking out four while allowing five hits and four walks.
NIU opens Mid-American Conference play next weekend at Kent State. The Huskies and Golden Flashes open their four-game series on Friday, March 19 at 2 p.m.
--NIU--
