WEST LAFAYETTE, IN – The Northern Illinois University baseball team had a season-high 14 runs on 17 hits Tuesday afternoon, but it was not enough to get past the Purdue Boilermakers in a 17-14 slugfest at Alexander Field.
 
"We scored a ton of runs and had a lot of clutch hits," said head coach Mike Kunigonis. "When you give up the free bases we did today, you need an extraordinary offensive performance."
 
NIU (6-21) took an early 2-0 lead in the top of the first. Eric Erato (Sussex, Wis./Sussex Hamilton) led off the game with a single. After a flyout, Carlos Aranda (Santo Domingo, D.R./Ellsworth CC) hit a two-run, inside the park home run to centerfield to put the Huskies up 2-0. The Boilermakers put a run on the board in the bottom half of the inning on a two-out RBI double from Cam Thompson, scoring Mike Bolton who led off with a walk. Purdue loaded the bases on back-to-back walks to Paul Toetz and Jake Jarvis but Nick Bonk (Buffalo Grove, Ill./Stevenson) got Curtis Washington to fly out to end the inning.
 
The Huskies extended their lead in the top of the second. Aaron Harper (Hemet, Calif./Mt. San Jacinto College) led off by reaching on an error. Jonathan Latham (Mahomet, Ill./Danville Area CC) drove home Harper with a single to left field to make the score 3-1. Andre Demetral (Rochester, Mich./Florence Darling Tech) then singled through the left side. After a fly out for the second out, Demetral and Latham advanced 90 feet on a passed ball. Matt Barnes (Bloomington, Ill./Heartland CC) brought both runners around to score on a single up the middle, making the score 5-1 and advancing to third on a throwing error.
 
Purdue (19-5) answered NIU's three runs in the top of the second with three of its own on a three-run double from CJ Valdez to get back within a run, 5-4. The Boilermakers took the lead in the bottom of the third, scoring five runs capped by a two-run Washington single to go up 9-5.
 
NIU got back within two runs in the top of the fifth. Barnes led off the inning with a single. Brandon Johnson (Rochelle, Ill./Rochelle Twp.) then pinch hit for Aranda and launched a two-run home run over the center field fence, his first home run as a Huskie, to make the score 9-7. Johnson put another run on the board in the top of the sixth, delivering a two-out RBI double to get NIU within a run at 9-8. Purdue responded in the bottom half of the sixth with a Pablo Lanzarote solo home run to go up 10-8.
 
The two teams traded runs in the seventh as well. NIU scored on a Latham RBI double, with the Boilermakers scoring on a wild pitch to make the score 11-9. Purdue broke the game open in the bottom of the eighth, taking advantage of three Huskie errors to score six runs and take a 17-9 lead.
 
NIU attempted a furious comeback in the ninth. The Huskies loaded the bases on two walks and a single with no outs. Pinch Hitter Paxton Kennedy (Mendota, Ill./Illinois Valley CC) drew a walk to drive in a run and make the score 17-10. Latham followed with a two-run double down the left field line to cut the deficit to five, 17-12. After a strikeout, Erato and Barnes hit back-to-back RBI singles to put the score at 17-14. The rally ended there as a strikeout ended the game.
 
Barnes had a career-high four hits and three RBI. Johnson was 2-for-4 with a career-high three RBI. Latham was 3-for-5 with four RBI, the most for a Huskie in a single game this season. Freshman pitcher Mason Ruh (Milwaukee, Wis./Wisconsin Lutheran HS) allowed one run in 3.1 innings of relief, striking out a pair of Boilermakers. Connor Lutes (Libertyville, Ill./Libertyville) allowed a run on two hits with a strikeout in the seventh inning.
 
The Huskies open a four-game, Mid-American Conference series at Central Michigan on Friday, April 8 at 2 p.m.
 
--NIU--