Baseball | February 15
DeKALB, IL - The Northern Illinois University baseball team opens its 2023 season on Friday afternoon when the Huskies open a four-game series against the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles at J.L. Johnson Stadium. First pitch is at 3 p.m. CT.
Head Coach Mike Kunigonis, entering his eighth season in the NIU dugout, says the energy and excitement around this year's squad has reached a fever pitch entering Friday's opener.
"The energy has been great this preseason, and that's been building up to this point," he said. "On Sunday the guys were excited inside [the Chessick Center]. Normally we get to this time of year and it's like 'we're ready to be out', but they were fired up to be there and just play baseball. From the time we started practice to where we're hooting and hollering when guys make great plays and getting big hits or big strikeouts on the mound, our energy in the preseason has been very high."
NIU will play 55 games this season, with the Mid-American Conference returning to three-game weekend series. The Huskies will play 19 home games on the newly-installed field turf at Ralph McKinzie Field at Walt and Janice Owens Park.
"The impact this new turf means for our program is immeasurable," Kunigonis said. "We can now go on our field and take ground balls and fly balls in January. We were out there the first day we were allowed to and that's never happened before. It brings a sense of pride to our team to just say 'Hey, we don't just go play at awesome places. We have an awesome field to play at too.' It's going to be great for us."
NIU's home opener will be on Friday, March 24 when the Huskies open a weekend series against Ohio. The Huskies will also welcome Northwestern, Illinois State, UIC and Milwaukee to DeKalb to go with MAC series against Central Michigan, Western Michigan, Akron and Toledo.
The Huskies return 19 letterwinners from last season's team that posted a 14-40 record. Three of NIU's top five hitters from a year ago are back, led by junior outfielder Eric Erato (Sussex, Wis./Sussex Hamilton). Erato hit .301 and led the Huskies with 36 runs batted in and 15 stolen bases.
"He's been an everyday starter since the third weekend of his freshman and hasn't come out of the lineup," said Kunigonis. "We had a good feeling he was going to be a special player and he's shown that over the last few years. He's athletic and can play a ton of spots, and we'll start him in left field. Eric drives in runs and he's become a good baserunner."
NIU also returns Malik Peters (Calumet City, Ill./Mount Carmel), Aaron Harper (Hemet, Calif./Mt. San Jacinto College) and Mason Kelley (Mt. Washington, Ky./Schoolcraft College) who each drove in over 20 runs a year ago. Peters, along with Erato, started every game last season. Harper was second on the team with four home runs in 2022 and drove in 23 runs, while Kelley drove in 29 runs.
The Huskies will look to bolster their lineup with transfers Andrew Smart (Evanston, Ill./Oakton CC) and Collin Summerhill (Chicago, Ill./Troy). Smart was a Region 4 First Team selection at Oakton Community College in 2022, leading the Owls to the NJCAA Division III World Series with a .348 batting average and 55 RBI. Summerhill comes to NIU after playing 22 games at Troy last season. While at Triton College in 2021, Summerhill was seventh in the NJCAA in batting average at .468 and earned All-America honors.
"Andrew's super strong, very intelligent and he really works at the craft of hitting. He's worked himself into a good defender at first base and we'll see how he does in the middle of the lineup. Collin is very versatile. He can catch, play first and the outfield and he'll DH. There are not many players I've been around that have the power in his bat that Collin does."
On the mound, redshirt-sophomore Matt Salomonson (Chicago, Ill./Notre Dame College Prep) looks to build on his first season in NIU that saw him post a 5-2 record with a save after missing 2021 due to injury. He is NIU's returning leader in innings pitched and strikeouts from a year ago, with 35 punchouts in 41.2 innings.
"Last year was really about him being healthy for a full season, which he was. This fall was about him staying healthy and progressing. In the preseason, he's been working for a spot in the rotation and we're expecting great things from him."
The rest of the rotation looks to be filled out by senior Brandon McPherson (Chicago, Ill./Wabash Valley College), Michigan State transfer Dominic Hann (Washington, Mich./Michigan State), and junior college transfer Jacob Wilde (Waukesha, Wis./Madison College). Senior Nick Bonk (Buffalo Grove, Ill./Stevenson) looks to lead the Huskie bullpen. Bonk had two saves in 2022, striking out 34 batters in 26 innings. Another bullpen arm to watch is sophomore Mason Ruh, who is coming off a strong summer in the Appalachian League. Ruh was 6-0 for the Burlington Sock Puppets with a 2.66 ERA over 47.1 innings with 56 strikeouts.
"I'm going into the year thinking we can be really good, that we have a very talented team, and that we have a chance to do things that haven't been done here before. Now we have to go out and do it on the field."
NIU and Oral Roberts will play a doubleheader Saturday starting at 2 p.m., and will wrap up the series on Sunday at 1 p.m. The Golden Eagles were 38-20 a year ago with a 17-7 conference mark in the Summit League. ORU won the Summit League Tournament to advance to the NCAA Regional at Texas A&M.
—NIU—
