IOWA CITY, Iowa – Senior first baseman Mason Kelley (Mt. Washington, Ky./Schoolcraft College) tied a career-high with four runs batted in Tuesday afternoon as the Northern Illinois University baseball team fell 14-6 to the Iowa Hawkeyes at Duane Banks Field.
 
NIU (2-7) had a chance to get out to an early lead. Charlie Parcell (Des Plaines, Ill./Maine West) drew a walk leading off the game, with Colin Summerhill (Chicago, Ill./Troy) also drawing a free pass with one out. Hawkeyes pitcher Jack Young stranded those two runners on base with a pair of strikeouts.
 
Iowa (4-4) scored five runs in the bottom of the first as Sam Petersen and Davis Cop both hit two-run home runs. The Hawkeyes added two runs in the second inning and one in the third to go up 8-0. The Huskies got on the board for the first time in the game in the fifth. Andre Demetral (Rochester, Mich./Florence Darling Tech) led off with a walk. After a strikeout, Eric Erato (Sussex, Wis./Sussex Hamilton) and Summerhill hit back-to-back singles to load the bases. Kelley drove in all three Huskies with a double to left center, making the score 8-3.
 
"Mason has been a pleasant surprise so far this season," said head coach Ryan Copeland. "We wanted him to be a little more dangerous at the plate. He's gotten some big hits for us and he's finding ways to drive in runs."
 
The Hawkeyes responded with four runs in the bottom of the fifth to take a 12-3 lead. NIU manufactured a run in the top of the seventh thanks to great patience at the plate. With one out, Christian Seegers (Schaumburg, Ill./Creighton), Nick Varon (Palatine, Ill./Southwestern Illinois College) and Cooper Cohn (McHenry, Ill./McHenry) each drew a walk to load the bases. Pinch-hitter Anthony Fornero (Lemont, Ill./Lake Land College) drew a four-pitch base on balls to bring in Seegers for his first career RBI.
 
The Huskies scored twice in the eighth inning. Summerhill's second hit of the day was a run-scoring triple that made the score 13-5. Kelley then drove in Summerhill with a groundout to put the score at 13-6, his fourth RBI of the game.
 
"We battled throughout," Copeland said. "We had some good at-bats late in the game and were able to score some runs. We drew 10 walks. When you're playing from behind, it feels like you can never score enough and that's a tough position for the offense to be in."
 
Erato and Summerhill each had two hits and scored two runs in the game.  Summerhill has had a hit in eight of NIU's first nine games this season, having reached base safely in all nine games.
 
NIU opens a four-game series at Cincinnati on Friday, March 1 with a doubleheader beginning at 12 p.m. CT.
 
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