CINCINNATI, Ohio - Senior catcher Colin Summerhill (Chicago, Ill./Troy) hit two home runs and drove in all five runs for the Northern Illinois University baseball team in Friday's 13-5 loss to the Cincinnati Bearcats at UC Baseball Stadium.

Summerhill has six home runs and 19 runs batted in through the first 10 games of the season. He is the first Huskie to have at least five home runs in the first game since at least the 2003 season. Summerhill is also just the second player in that timespan to have at least 15 RBI in NIU's first 10 games. Jesse Seykora had 15 RBI in NIU's first 10 games in 2007.

"Colin has been not only our best hitter, but our most consistent and most dangerous," said head coach Ryan Copeland. "He's got a presence about him. He doesn't chase out of the strike zone so he gets good pitches to hit, even while hitting in a spot in the lineup where you're going to see a lot of off-speed stuff. We need some guys to start to feed off that a little bit and find a way to protect him in the middle of the order."

The game started out as a pitcher's duel between NIU's Adam Brouwer (Tinley Park, Ill./Illinois-Springfield) and Cincinnati's Nathan Taylor. Both pitchers retired the side in the first, with Taylor retiring the first 10 Huskie batters he faced. Brouwer pitched out of a jam in the bottom of the second. With runners at first and second and one out, Brouwer got Landyn Vidourek to pop up a bunt back to himself on the mound, throwing to first base to double off the runner and end the inning.

Cincinnati (5-4) got on the board in the bottom of the third. Luke Sefcik led off with a double to left field. Christian Mitchelle followed with a double of his own to bring in Sefcik and put the Bearcats up 1-0. After a groundout, Mitchelle stole third and scored on a Josh Hegemann sacrifice fly for Cincinnati's second run.

NIU (2-8) tied the game in the top of the fourth. Andre Demetral (Rochester, Mich./Florence Darling Tech) singled up the middle with one out for the Huskies' first hit of the day. Summerhill followed with a two-run home run over the left field fence, his fifth of the season, to tie the game 2-2. The Huskies loaded the bases on a Mason Kelley (Mt. Washington, Ky./Schoolcraft College) single, an Eric Erato (Sussex, Wis./Sussex Hamilton) double and an Aaron Harper (Hemet, Calif./Mt. San Jacinto JC) walk. Taylor stranded all three runners with a strikeout and flyout.

The Bearcats took back the lead with a four-run bottom of the fourth, highlighted by a two-run double from Dalton Pearson, to go up 6-2. NIU got back on the board in the top of the fifth. Charlie Parcell (Des Plaines, Ill./Maine West) started the rally with a walk. Taylor then hit Demetral with a pitch to give the Huskies runners at first and second with one out. Summerhill launched his second home run of the game out to left field, making the score 6-5. Kelley reached base on a single to represent the tying run. Just as in the fourth, Taylor escaped with a strikeout and fielder's choice to get out of the inning with the Bearcats still in the lead.

"It was an intense game today," Copeland said. "There was an opportunity in the middle of the game to throw a punch and go take the lead and go take a win, and we're just not there right now. We keep hanging around and then eventually we get outlasted. It was a good atmosphere in the dugout, the guys played hard, but we're just missing something right now that's unfortunately caused us to lose games."

Cincinnati got a run back in the bottom of the fifth on a two-out RBI double from Vidourek. The Bearcats then extended their lead with two runs in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings to take the opener 13-5.

Summerhill, Demetral, Kelley and Erato all had two hits in the game. The Huskies had 10 hits and left 10 runners on base. Brouwer had his longest start of the season, going five innings. He struck out three batters while allowing seven runs on eight hits and two walks.

NIU and Cincinnati will play a doubleheader tomorrow starting at 11 a.m. CT. The first game will be seven innings with game two set for nine innings.

—NIU—