DeKALB, IL – The Northern Illinois University baseball team dropped its series opener Friday afternoon against the Ohio Bobcats 19-5 in eight innings at Ralph McKinzie Field.
 
NIU (5-22, 4-9 MAC) broke a 1-1 tie in the bottom of the second inning on a two-out, two-run triple off the bat of centerfielder Matt Barnes (Bloomington, Ill./Heartland CC) that the put the Huskies ahead 3-1. The Huskies extended the lead to 4-1 in the third on a solo home run by Dylan Lonteen (Peoria, Ill./Illinois Central College), his third of the season.
 
Ohio's (16-11, 10-7 MAC) bats came alive in the fourth inning. The Bobcats scored six runs in the inning, highlighted by a two-run Treyben Funderberg triple and an RBI single from Harry Witwer-Dukes, to take a 7-4 lead. The Huskies got a run back in the bottom half of the inning. Brendan Joyce (South Elgin, Ill./Parkland College) stole third with one out, then scored on a Nick Drobushevich (Moline, Ill./Moline) groundout to get NIU within two, 7-5. The Bobcats pulled away from there, scoring 12 unanswered runs over the next four innings to take game one of the four-game series.
 
"We got off to an early lead, but we needed to do more to sustain it," said head coach Mike Kunigonis. "We need to show up and be better on the mound, at the plate and in the field for tomorrow's doubleheader."
 
Barnes was 2-for-4 at the plate with two RBI. Catcher Jake Dunham (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield North) was also 2-for-4 on the day.
 
NIU and Ohio will play a doubleheader of two seven-inning games on Saturday, with first pitch of game one at 12 p.m. Both games will be available via Huskie All-Access and live stats on NIUHuskies.com.
 
--NIU--