MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – The Northern Illinois University baseball team led the Central Michigan Chippewas 8-0 through seven innings Saturday afternoon and hung on for a 9-6 victory at Theunissen Stadium.
 
"It was a good overall win," said head coach Ryan Copeland. "We swung the bats well again and had a lot more to show for it with the conditions today. We threw a couple big punches with a three and a four-run inning and managed to hang on for a series win that's been a long time coming."
 
NIU (15-27, 9-11 MAC) got on the board in the top of the first. Jake Nelson (Altoona, Wis./Madison College) led off with a double to left center. Eric Erato (Sussex, Wis./Sussex Hamilton) followed with a base hit up the middle, scoring Nelson to give the Huskies a 1-0 lead. Central Michigan starting pitcher Trey Miller retired the side to get out of the inning.
 
Adam Brouwer (Tinley Park, Ill./Illinois-Springfield) retired nine of the first 11 CMU batters he faced. The Huskies gave their starting pitcher some more run support in the top of the fourth. NIU loaded the bases with one out on a CJ Cepicky (St. Louis, Mo./Missouri) single, a Charlie Parcell (Des Plaines, Ill./Maine West) walk and another base hit from Mason Kelley (Mt. Washington, Ky./Schoolcraft College). A Miller wild pitch allowed the runners to advance with Cepicky scoring NIU's second run of the game. Spencer Bartel (Sun Prairie, Wis./Madison College) followed with a sacrifice fly to left center, bringing home Parcell to put NIU up 3-0. With two outs, Andre Demetral (Rochester, Mich./Florence Darling Tech) notched a single to left field which drove in Kelley and made the score 4-0.
 
Central Michigan (14-29, 5-15 MAC) went to the bullpen for Jack Bell, who gave up a single to Nelson that kept the inning alive. Erato ripped a double down the left field line to bring in Demetral and give NIU a 5-0 lead. Brouwer worked around a one-out double to Stuart in the bottom of the fourth to strike out Danny Wuestenfeld and get Spencer Verburg to fly out and keep the Chippewas off the board. He then retired the side in both the fifth and sixth innings.
 
"We challenged Adam to try to compete with Ty [Brachbill's] outing yesterday and just keep them on their heels, mixing up three different pitches for strikes," Copeland said about Brouwer's performance on the mound Saturday. "He was really good again after some struggles against Bowling Green and Illinois."
 
The Huskies extended their lead in the seventh with three runs, capped off by a two-out RBI single from Bartel that put NIU up 8-0. The Chippewas got on the board in the bottom of the eighth. With two runners on and one out, Drew Loikits hit a single to right field to bring in Elijah Henning and make the score 8-1. Sam Pederson (Verona, Wis./McHenry CC) came in from the bullpen for Brouwer and allowed a Jacob Donohue RBI single and a Ely Stuart run-scoring groundout that put the score at 8-3. With two outs Drew Stengren knocked a base hit to left field to bring home Donahue and cut the NIU lead to four, 8-4. Pederson got out of the inning with a Verburg lineout to Demetral at shortstop.
 
NIU got a run back in the top of the ninth. Cooper Cohn (McHenry, Ill./McHenry) led off with a double to left. Parker Shupe (Johnston, Iowa/Kirkwood CC) entered as a pinch runner and scored two batters later on a Bartel RBI single, his third run batted in of the game that made the score 9-4.
 
"Spencer always finds a way to compete get on the barrel with two strikes," Copeland said. "He's earned everything he's had this season and it's good to see. His hit in the ninth was big because instead of CMU having the tying run at the plate, they needed another base runner to tie it up."
 
Central Michigan scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth but DJ Hess (Germantown, Wis./College of Lake County) got Donahue to fly out to end the ballgame and give NIU it's fourth win in the last six games.
 
Bartel was 2-for-3 at the plate with three RBI. Nelson, Erato and Cepicky each had two hits as well. Brouwer moved to 5-5 on the year, allowing three runs on six hits in 7.1 innings with four strikeouts.
 
NIU and Central Michigan wrap up their series on Sunday, April 28 at 11 a.m. CT.
 
--NIU--