DeKALB, IL – The Northern Illinois University baseball team will play its first baseball games at Ralph McKinzie Field since May of 2019 this weekend as it hosts the Central Michigan Chippewas for four games beginning Friday at 2 p.m.
On Saturday, the two teams will play two seven-inning games beginning at 12 p.m. Sunday's series finale has a 12 p.m. first pitch.
Unfortunately, due to COVID restrictions, attendance at Ralph McKinzie Field at this time is limited to 165 fans. Entrance will be allowed on a first to come general admission process through the North gate on the first base side of the field. The North gate will open 30 minutes prior to first pitch each day. NIU Athletics reserves the right to reserve some attendee spots for parents of NIU Baseball student-athletes if necessary on gameday.
Masks must be worn while inside Ralph McKinzie Field and self-monitored general admission social distancing will be required. A limited concession menu will be available. Some areas near the dugouts or other team areas previously open to the public will be restricted as additional COVID precautions. The pet area will also be moved to down the third base side of the field.
All home baseball games will be shown on NIUTube on NIUHuskies.com, the Huskie all-access channel. Subscriptions are available for purchase on a daily ($6.95), monthly ($10.95) or annual basis and provides access to all home NIU Athletics events streamed on the website for the purchase period.
NIU (5-14, 4-4 MAC) is 4-4 through its first eight Mid-American Conference games after taking one out of four games at Miami last weekend. The Huskies won the series finale last Sunday 10-7 to get back to .500 in the league. NIU's 10 runs were a season high, led by
Dylan Lonteen (Peoria, Ill./Illinois Central College) and
Kam Smith (Colonial Beach, Va./The Steward School) who both had two RBI in the win. Smith hit his fourth and fifth home runs of the season against the RedHawks which put him tied for second in the MAC. Smith leads NIU with a .343 batting average and 15 RBI so far this year.
The Huskies have gotten stellar starting pitching from junior
Michael Lasiewicz (McHenry, Ill./McHenry) and sophomore
Brandon McPherson (Chicago, Ill./Wabash Valley College) over their last three respective starts. Lasiewicz has a 1.21 earned run average over 22.1 innings, striking out 17 batters against 15 hits and six walks. He threw seven shutout innings in his last start March 26 at Miami, allowing four hits with seven strikeouts. McPherson tied a career-high with nine strikeouts in 6.1 innings at Miami on March 27, allowing one run on four hits. He has a 1.33 ERA over his last three starts. McPherson is tied for eighth in the MAC in strikeouts with 32.
Central Michigan (10-8, 2-2 MAC) is the defending MAC Tournament champions after winning the 2019 tournament. The Chippewas split their series at Ohio last weekend, winning the last two games by scores of 12-2 and 14-3. Senior outfielder Zach Gilles leads the MAC in batting average at .441 and on-base percentage at .570. As a team, Central Michigan leads the conference with a .289 team batting average and 134 runs scored so far this season.
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