CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The Northern Illinois University baseball team hit four home runs Friday night but could not overcome a seven-run second inning by the Illinois Fighting Illini in a 15-5 loss at Illinois Field.
 
NIU (11-22) took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first when Jake Nelson (Altoona, Wis./Madison College) led off the ballgame with a home run over the left centerfield fence off of Illinois starting pitcher Jack Crowder for his first home run of the season. After a groundout, Colin Summerhill (Chicago, Ill./Troy) launched his 12th home run of the year to left field to give the Huskies a 2-0 advantage.
 
"Jake just has really good at-bats," said head coach Ryan Copeland about the Huskies' leadoff man. "He does a good job working counts and he's turned himself into a pretty dangerous offensive player of us. Colin's home run was pretty impressive, hitting it through a wind on an elevated fastball. That just shows his talent and ability."
 
Illinois (18-13) took the lead in the bottom of the second. The Fighting Illini sent 13 batters to the plate, scoring seven runs sparked by a two-run double from Coltin Quagliano. Back-to-back RBI singles from Ryan Moerman and Jacob Schroeder capped the rally.  The Huskies got a run back in the top of the third. Charlie Parcell (Des Plaines, Ill./Maine West) drew a lead-off walk, advancing to second on a throwing error by Illinois catcher Camden Janik. He advanced to third on Nelson flyout to centerfield and scored on Eric Erato (Sussex, Wis./Sussex Hamilton) to make the score 7-3.
 
The Fighting Illini put four more runs on the board in the fourth on two home runs and two in the fifth to go up 13-3. Nelson led off the top of the sixth with his second home run of the game over the right centerfield wall, making the score 13-4. Illinois responded with a run-scoring double from Drake Westcott and a Vytas Valincius RBI single in the bottom of the inning to go up 15-4. JP Gauthier (De Pere, Wis./Illinois State) cracked NIU's fourth home run of the night in the top of the seventh put the score at 15-5.
 
"We actually did a good job against Illinois' starter early," Copeland said. "We hit a couple home runs off him early and we worked some counts to get his pitch count up. Unfortunately, the big inning hurt us. It was a tough day to pitch but it's never the home runs that seem to get you. It's what happened before that and we just had too many free passes."
 
Ty Brachbill (Shelbyville, Ill./Shelbyville) walked four batters and hit one more, allowing 11 runs on 12 hits in 3.1 innings. Crowder went six innings to earn the win for the Fighting Illini, allowing four runs on four hits. Conner Lutes (Libertyville, Ill./Libertyville) threw two scoreless innings out of the bullpen for NIU.
 
Nelson had his fifth straight game with two hits. It's the second time this season Nelson has had five straight two-hit games, having last done it March 15-22. He has 14 hits over the last nine games.
 
The Huskies and Fighting Illini play the middle game of this weekend's three-game series on Saturday, April 13 at 3 p.m.
 
--NIU--