DeKALB, IL – The Northern Illinois University baseball team was within a run of the Toledo Rockets heading into the ninth inning Friday afternoon at Ralph McKinzie Field, but the visitors tacked on three insurance runs in the final frame to take the series opener 7-3.
"The final score doesn't really show how close and tight the ballgame was," said head coach
Mike Kunigonis. "We fought and battled all game. Toledo is a good offensive team and they made us pay a little more for our mistakes than we could capitalizing on theirs."
Toledo (21-28, 19-14 MAC) led 3-0 after three innings, scoring twice in the second inning on back-to-back RBI doubles from Darryn Davis and Danny O'Reilly. The Huskies got on the board in the bottom of the fourth.
Brendan Joyce (South Elgin, Ill./Parkland College) led off with a single. After a strikeout, catcher
Jake Dunham (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield North) drew a walk to give the Huskies runners at first and second.
Brady Huebbe (Peru, Ill./Illinois Valley C.C.) cracked a single to centerfield to drive home Joyce and make the score 3-1. The Rockets got the run back in the top of the fifth on a solo home run from Trace Hatfield, putting Toledo up 4-1.
NIU (14-33, 13-20 MAC) manufactured a two-out run in the bottom of the fifth to get back within two.
Eric Erato (Sussex, Wis./Sussex Hamilton) reached on an infield single to keep the inning alive, then stole second base. Joyce followed with a single up the middle that scored the Huskies' second baseman and made it a 4-2 ballgame. Erato came up with another big two-out hit in the NIU half of the seventh. With
Jordan Larson (Dodgeville, Wis./College of DuPage) at first, Erato rang a triple off the wall in right centerfield to bring in Larson and get NIU within one run at 4-3.
Tristan Michaels (Barrington, Ill./Triton College) had done his part in relief of
Kyle Seebach (Rochelle, Ill./Rochelle Twp.) to keep the Huskies in the game, throwing 1.2 innings of scoreless relief heading into the final inning. He retired the first two batters he faced in the ninth, striking out Scott Mackiewicz and getting John Servello to line out to
Matt Barnes (Bloomington, Ill./Heartland C.C.) in left field. Chris Meyers kept the inning alive by beating out an infield single. Hatfield then hit a hard flyball to left field that was just out of Barnes' reach, scoring Meyers to make it a 5-3 game as Hatfield reached on a double. The Rockets tacked on two more runs to go up four at 7-3. Cal McAninch then retired the Huskies in order in the bottom of the inning to lock up the Toledo win.
"We had a chance to get into the bottom of the ninth down one, but Toledo found some holes and Matt [Barnes] just missed making a great play in left," Kunigonis said. "We played well today but it just didn't go our way."
The top two batters in the NIU lineup, Erato and Joyce, combined for five of the Huskies' eight hits on Friday. Erato tied a career high with three hits at the top of the card with his first career triple, an RBI and a stolen base. Joyce was 2-for-4 with an RBI as well. Seebach started the game on the mound and went 6.1 innings, allowing four runs on seven hits with five strikeouts.
The two teams will play a doubleheader of two seven-inning games on Saturday at Ralph McKinzie Field. First pitch of game one is at 12 p.m.
--NIU--
