YPSILANTI, MI – The Northern Illinois University baseball team rallied from an early 4-0 deficit to the Eastern Michigan Eagles Sunday afternoon to win 8-5 at Oestrike Stadium.
"Today was a great win for the boys," said head coach
Mike Kunigonis. "We kept battling and scratching runs across. We did a really nice job battling in each at bat and it paid off with a series split."
Eastern Michigan (20-22, 14-17 MAC) got off to a fast start, scoring four runs in the bottom of the first inning highlighted by a Mike Monahan two-run single to take a 4-0 lead. The Huskies got on the board in the top of the second.
Jake Dunham (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield North) led off the frame with a walk, getting the third on a
Brady Huebbe (Peru, Ill./Illinois Valley C.C.) double. Senior first baseman
Jordan Larson (Dodgeville, Wis./College of DuPage) followed with a double that brought Dunham home to make the score 4-1.
Nick Drobushevich (Moline, Ill./Moline) drove in NIU's second run on a sacrifice fly that scored Huebbe from third. After a
Paddy McKermitt (Hampshire, Ill./Burlington Central) walk,
Matt Barnes (Bloomington, Ill./Heartland C.C.) made the score 4-3 with a run-scoring single.
NIU (14-32, 13-19 MAC) starting pitcher
Connor Langreder (West De Pere, Wis./West De Pere) got in a groove after allowing allowing a four-spot to the Eagles in the first. The freshman left-hander retired the next nine batters he faced with the infield defense erasing a walk to Monahan in the fourth with a double play. The Huskies took the lead in the top of the fifth inning.
Kam Smith (Colonial Beach, Va./The Steward School) tied the game with runners at the corners and no outs, hitting a sacrifice fly that scored
Eric Erato (Sussex, Wis./Sussex Hamilton) from third to make the score 4-4. Huebbe then put NIU ahead with an RBI single that scored
Brendan Joyce (South Elgin, Ill./Parkland College) to give the Huskies a 5-4 lead.
McKermitt extended the NIU lead in the top of the sixth inning with a sacrifice fly, driving home Larson to put the Huskies up 6-4. Eastern Michigan got the run back in the bottom half of the inning as Will Oberg hit a run-scoring single to right centerfield off of reliever
Erik Hedmark (Algonquin, Ill./Dundee Crown) to get the Eagles within one run at 6-5. Hedmark got out of the inning by throwing out Eli Gora as he tried to steal home.
The Huskies scored a pair of insurance runs in the top of the seventh. With the bases loaded and one out, Larson drove in his second run of the game on a groundout to second baseman Jared Kauffman which scored Joyce to make the score 7-5. Dunham then scored on a wild pitch to put NIU ahead by three, 8-5. That would be all the run support Hedmark needed. The junior allowed no runs on just two hits over the final three innings to lock up a split of the weekend series.
Erato, Joyce, Huebbe and Drobushevich each had two hits in the ballgame. Six different Huskies had an RBI on the day with Larson driving in a pair of runs. Langreder earned the win, pitching 5.2 innings allowing five runs on three hits with four strikeouts. Hedmark allowed just three hits with three punchouts in 3.1 innings for his first career save.
"Connor got off to a slow start, but once he settled in he dominated the game," Kunigonis said. "Erik came in and took care of business in the last three innings."
NIU hosts the Toledo Rockets for the final home series of the regular season at Ralph McKinzie Field, beginning with a 2 p.m. game on Friday, May 21.
--NIU--
