DeKALB, IL - The Northern Illinois University baseball team split its doubleheader against the Ohio Bobcats on Sunday at Ralph McKinzie Field at Walt and Janice Owens Park, taking the nightcap 11-1 in seven innings after Ohio rallied for a 16-12 win in game one.
 
"Our guys showed a lot of character to come back and win game two," said head coach Mike Kunigonis. "They do the right things and put all the work in. You don't do what they did in game three of this series without having that want to keep on working hard, do the right thing, and eventually things start to come your way."
 
Ohio (7-14, 5-4 MAC) took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first of game two on a Mason Minzey solo home run. NIU sent 12 batters to plate in the bottom of the first in game two. Andre Demetral (Rochester, Mich./Florence Darling Tech) and Aaron Harper (Hemet, Calif./Mt. San Jacinto College) hit back-to-back singles with one out. Colin Summerhill (Chicago, Ill./Troy) then crushed his third home run of the year over the right centerfield fence to give the Huskies a 3-1 lead.
 
After a Tyler Thierry (Bloomington, Ill./Heartland CC) single, Kaden Kosobucki (West De Pere, Wis./West De Pere) launched his first career home run to give NIU a 5-1 lead. NIU had the bases loaded with two outs when Demetral hit his second single of the inning, driving in two runs to extend the Huskies' advantage to 7-1.
 
NIU's (5-17, 2-7 MAC) starting pitcher Brandon McPherson (Chicago, Ill./Wabash Valley College) held Ohio to one run on two hits over six innings in the nightcap. After allowing the home run to Minzey, McPherson retired 12 of the next 14 Bobcats he faced. Ohio had runners at the corners with two outs in the third when McPherson got Minzey to flyout to centerfielder Malik Peters (Calumet City, Ill./Mount Carmel) to end the frame. He also stranded two runners in the fourth and fifth innings.
 
"We needed a good start and Brandon delivered when we needed it the most," Kunigonis said.
 
The Huskies put two more runs on the board in the bottom of the fourth. Eric Erato (Sussex, Wis./Sussex Hamilton) led off with a single and stole second base. Demetral drove him in for his third RBI of the game, making the score 8-1. A Harper bunt single gave NIU runners at the corners, with Summerhill hitting a sacrifice fly to bring Demetral in from third and put NIU up 10-1. Summerhill drove in his fifth run of the game with a double in the bottom of the sixth to make the score 11-1. Nick Bonk (Buffalo Grove, Ill./Stevenson) retired the Ohio side in the top of the seventh to lock up the win.
 
NIU's top four batters in its lineup - Erato, Demetral, Harper, and Summerhill - were a combined 9-for-14 at the plate with nine RBI in game two. Summerhill was 2-for-3 with five RBI. Demetral was 3-for-4 with three RBI. McPherson won his second straight start, allowing one run on two hits while striking out four Bobcats and scattering five walks.
 
NIU sent 14 men to the plate in the bottom of the first of Sunday's opener. Highlighted by a three-run home run by Harper and three bases-loaded walks, the Huskies took a 10-0 lead. Ohio chipped away at the NIU lead, scoring two in the top of the second on an Alex Finney two-run homer and seven in the third, highlighted by a Gideon Antle grand slam, to make the score 10-9. The Huskies extended the lead to 11-9 on a Demetral RBI groundout in the bottom of the third, but that would be NIU's last run until the ninth.
 
Ohio took the lead with five runs in the fourth, getting a two-run triple from Finney and a two-run home run off the bat of Alec Patino to go up 14-11. The Bobcats tacked on a run in the sixth and the eighth to go up 16-11. Bobcats reliever Hudson Boncal entered the game in the fourth and threw four scoreless innings, allowing three hits and two walks with three strikeouts.
 
Summerhill led off the bottom of the ninth with a triple, scoring on a sacrifice fly from Thierry that got NIU within four, 16-12, which wound up being the final score. The junior catcher was 4-for-5 in game one, ending a home run shy of the cycle. Harper was 2-for-4 with four RBI. Thierry was 3-for-4.
 
NIU opens a five-game road stretch on Tuesday, March 28 at Northwestern. First pitch at Rocky Miller Park is at 3:30 p.m. CT.
 
--NIU--