CINCINNATI, Ohio - The Northern Illinois University baseball team dropped a back-and-forth 3-2 game on Sunday to the Xavier Musketeers at Hayden Field.

The Huskies trailed Xavier 2-1 through five innings. Shortstop Andre Demetral (Rochester, Mich./Florence Darling Tech) led off the top of the sixth with a walk, then stole second base. Aaron Harper (Hemet, Calif./Mt. San Jacinto College) reached base on an error by Xavier second baseman Jared Cushing, allowing Demetral to get to third. Catcher Colin Summerhill then hit a sacrifice fly to centerfield, scoring Demetral to tie the score 2-2. The Musketeers got out of the inning with a double play to keep the score tied.

Eric Erato (Sussex, Wis./Sussex Hamilton) drew a walk to leadoff the eighth, getting to second base on a Demetral sacrifice bunt. Xavier relief pitcher Justin Loer struck out Harper, then intentionally walked Summerhill. Loer struck out Tyler Thierry (Bloomington, Ill./Heartland CC) to end the inning. Xavier loaded the bases on three walks with one out in the bottom half of the inning. Matthew DePrey put the Musketeers up 3-2 with a sacrifice fly to right field, bringing in Garrett Schultz. Clay Schwaner closed out the game for Xavier, retiring the Huskies in order in the ninth to lock up the series sweep.

"It was a pitchers duel today and we did enough to be right there but not enough to win," said head coach Mike Kunigonis. "We had some opportunities offensively but didn't convert when we had our chances."

NIU (5-21) opened the scoring in the top of the second inning when Summerhill led off with his fifth home run of the season, putting the Huskies up 1-0. The Musketeers threatened to get on the board in the bottom of the inning. Matt McCormick drew a leadoff walk, followed by singles from Carter Hendrickson and Schultz to load the bases with no outs. Brandon McPherson (Chicago, Ill./Wabash Valley College) got Cushing to hit a bouncer back to the mound, allowing the NIU starting pitcher to throw home and retire McCormick for the first out. He then struck out Grant Stephenson and got Jack Housinger to foul out to Christian Seegers (Schaumburg, Ill./Creighton) at third base to end the threat.

Xavier (16-12) took the lead in the bottom of the third. With a runner on second and one out, Tyler DeMartino hit a home run over the left field fence to put Xavier up 2-1. The Musketeers nearly extended their lead in the fourth. After a Stephenson double with two outs, NIU reliever Tommy Meyer (Wauwatosa, Wis./Wauwatosa East) entered the game and walked Housinger and Deprey to load the bases. Meyer got NIU out of the inning unscathed by getting Andrew Walker to line out to Harper at second base.

Summerhill was 1-for-2 and drove in two runs as NIU had four hits on the day. NIU pitching held Xavier to five hits. Meyer and Matt Salomonson (Chicago, Ill./Notre Dame College Prep) combined to throw 2.2 scoreless innings.

NIU wraps up a stretch of five consecutive road games on Tuesday, April 4 with a 6:05 p.m. CT game at UIC.

—NIU—