DeKALB, IL – The Northern Illinois University baseball team took advantage of 10 hits and 10 free passes from Ball State pitching to take down the Cardinals 12-3 Saturday afternoon at Ralph McKinzie Field at Walt and Janice Owens Park.
"Everything starts on the mound and Adam [Brouwer] was fantastic today," said head coach
Ryan Copeland. "He's been really good in MAC play. We did a really good job taking what Ball State's pitching staff gave us. They were not in the strike zone a whole lot early and we were able to build a lead."
NIU (16-30, 10-13 MAC) manufactured the first run of the game in the bottom of the first.
Andre Demetral (Rochester, Mich./Florence Darling Tech) led off with a single up the middle, advancing to second on a passed ball.
Eric Erato (Sussex, Wis./Sussex Hamilton) reached on a fielder's choice as Ball State shortstop Michael Hallquist tried to put out Demetral at third base, with Demetral getting around the tag of third baseman Dylan Grego. After a strikeout,
Cooper Cohn (McHenry, Ill./McHenry) hit a sacrifice fly to right field to drive in Demetral and put the Huskies up 1-0.
The Huskies grew their lead in the bottom of the second. NIU loaded the bases on walks to
Jake Nelson (Altoona, Wis./Madison College) and
Spencer Bartel (Sun Prairie, Wis./Madison College) and
Mason Kelley (Mt. Washington, Ky./Schoolcraft College) getting hit by a Keegan Johnson pitch. Johnson walked Demetral to bring home Nelson and make the score 2-0. Two batters later
Colin Summerhill (Chicago, Ill./Troy) cleared the bases with a three-run double to give NIU a 5-0 lead.
For as good as NIU was at the plate early on, starting pitcher
Adam Brouwer (Tinley Park, Ill./Illinois-Springfield) was even better. The redshirt-sophomore retired the first 12 batters he faced before hitting Nick Husnovsky with a pitch leading off the fifth. Brouwer retired the side after that to keep Ball State scoreless. The Huskies put another four-spot on the board in the bottom of the inning, scoring on a Kelley RBI double, an Erato hit by pitch, a Summerhill infield single and a passed ball to take a 9-0 advantage.
"The best thing we did today was build on our lead," Copeland said. "We took our free passes, got a couple big hits, were on the barrel all day and we won a game we desperately needed. Ball State has really good arms and we had to make sure they got us out in the strikezone."
Brouwer allowed his first hit of the game in the top of the sixth as Clay Jacobs led off with a base hit up the middle. He retired the side again, striking out Hallquist to end the inning. The Cardinals got on the board in the seventh as Blake Bevis drove in Hunter Dobbins with a run-scoring groundout that made the score 9-1. All told, Brouwer allowed one run over seven innings on just two hits with no walks and three strikeouts.
The Huskies put three more runs on the scoreboard in the bottom of the seventh, with a two-run double off the bat of
Charlie Parcell (Des Plaines, Ill./Maine West) putting NIU up 12-1. Ball State scored a run in both the eighth and ninth innings to make the final score 12-3.
Seven of the nine Huskies in the batting order reached base safely at least twice in the game. Summerhill was 3-for-6 in the game with four RBI. Nelson, Kelley and Bartel at the bottom of the lineup each scored two runs. NIU's win snapped a 14-game losing streak to Ball State.
This weekend's series wraps up on Sunday, May 5 at 1 p.m. CT.
--NIU--
