DeKALB, IL – Senior Aaron Harper's (Hemet, Calif./Mt. St. Jacinto CC) single in the bottom of the 11^th inning Friday afternoon gave the Northern Illinois University baseball team a 15-14 victory over the Eastern Michigan Eagles at Ralph McKinzie Field at Walt and Janice Owens Park.
 
"Early on we played good baseball but too many mistakes let Eastern Michigan back in it," said head coach Ryan Copeland. "We bounced back from a six-spot to tie the game in the seventh. It felt like once it got to extras everyone was playing for the solo home run. We found a way to win and that matters. This program has been through a lot, and to win a game like this that we've lost so often is encouraging for the future."
 
NIU (20-33, 13-16 MAC) got two runners on base in the 11^th on back-to-back one-out walks by CJ Cepicky (St. Louis, Mo./Missouri) and Charlie Parcell (Des Plaines, Ill./Maine West). Jake Nelson (Altoona, Wis./Madison College) ripped a liner right at Eastern Michigan third baseman Glenn Miller for the second out. Harper then stepped up to the plate and hit a ball that took an in-between hop that went off second baseman Drew Jones. Cepicky rounded third and headed home, beating Jones' throw to the plate to give NIU the 15-14 win.
 
"They were shifted on me to the left side, so I was trying to stay up the middle to the right side knowing a single would probably win it," said Harper. "I was little out in front and got a little lucky with the bounce. In a game like that, you just have to kind of win every inning you can. It was a good team effort."
 
The Huskies trailed 14-10 going into the bottom of the seventh. Mason Kelley (Mt. Washington, Ky./Schoolcraft College) started the comeback with a leadoff walk. JP Gauthier (De Pere, Wis./Illinois State) then launched a two-run home run, his third hit of the day, over the left field fence to make the score 14-12. After a strikeout, Andre Demetral (Rochester, Mich./Florence Darling Tech) reached on a single to right field. With two outs in the inning, Cepicky hit his second home run in as many days over the left centerfield wall to tie the game at 14-14.
 
"JP and CJ have been up and down this season but they were great today," Copeland said. "CJ has solidified himself as our everyday leftfielder because he's shown a knack for getting big hits like that. Both of those guys deserved that moment to give us a chance to get back in the game."
 
NIU led 1-0 in the bottom of the first after Eric Erato (Sussex, Wis./Sussex Hamilton) hit the second pitch he saw over the right field fence for a leadoff home run. Eastern Michigan (14-37, 9-20 MAC) answered with three runs in the top of the second to go up 3-1. The Huskies tied the game on RBI doubles from Gauthier and Erato to make the score 3-3. The Eagles scored five unanswered runs in the third and fourth innings, capped by a Brendan Kleiman two-run home run, to take an 8-3 lead.
 
The Huskies scored a run in the bottom of the fourth and fifth innings to get within two runs at 8-6. NIU took back the lead in the bottom of the sixth with a four-spot. Gauthier and Erato drew walks to start the inning. After a Demetral sacrifice bunt moved the runners into scoring position, Colin Summerhill (Chicago, Ill./Troy) cleared the bases with a two-run single through the right side to tie the game at 8-8. Cepicky beat out a fielder's choice to keep the inning alive, getting to second on a Parcell base hit. Nelson put NIU back in front with a double down the left field line, scoring both runners to give the Huskies a 10-8 lead.
 
The NIU bullpen trio of Reagan Klawiter (Verona, Wis./Madison College), Dominic Hann (Washington, Mich./Michigan State) and Ryan Linkletter (McHenry, Ill./Iowa Central CC) held the Eagles scoreless over the last four innings. Klawiter retired all four batters he faced in the eighth and ninth innings. Hann got a strikeout and groundout to end the ninth. Linkletter retired the side with two strikeouts in the top of the 10^th, but made the game interesting in the top of the 11^th. After getting the first two outs of the inning, Linkletter walked the next three EMU batters to load the bases. He got out of the jam by getting Logan Hugo to fly out to Cepicky in left field.
 
"We want our best guys out there late in games, guys we can trust with the baseball who will compete and not be afraid of the moment," Copeland said. "We found a way to get it done today. Linkletter made the big pitch in the 11^th and gave us a chance to win it by putting the zero on the board."
 
Linkletter earned the win for his first of the season and first as a Huskie. Demetral, Nelson and Gauthier each had three hits for NIU on the day. Gauthier was 3-for-4 with three RBI and three runs scored, reaching base five times. Harper's game-winning hit was his third walk-off hit in his career. He has had one in each of the last three seasons.
 
NIU and Eastern Michigan wrap up the series, and the 2024 season, on Saturday, May 18 at 1 p.m. Prior to first pitch, NIU Athletics will honor the 2024 baseball senior class with a Senior Day ceremony at 12:15.
 
--NIU--