LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Northern Illinois University baseball team played its first midweek game of the 2025 season Tuesday night, falling 9-2 to the #23 Kentucky Wildcats at Kentucky Proud Park.
 
"I thought we competed well after the first inning," said head coach Ryan Copeland. "When things started to slow down we played good baseball. I actually loved our at-bats, We hit the ball really hard but didn't have a whole lot to show for it. We flew out to the warning track a couple times. Everything they [Kentucky] got, we gave them. There were just too many free passes and they capitalized on them. Overall I thought we played well but not well enough to get the win."
 
Kentucky (13-2) put three runs on the board in the bottom of the first. With the bases loaded and one out Dylan Koontz hit a single to centerfield that drove in Shaun Montoya and Luke Lawrence to give the Wildcats a 2-0 lead. An error allowed the third run to score.
 
NIU (7-7) scored its first run in the top of the third. Nolan Sandee (Glendale, Wis./Nicolet) led off with a walk, followed by a single from Kaden Kosobucki (West De Pere, Wis./West De Pere). A wild pitch allowed Sandee to get to third base. After a strikeout, Logan Gregorio (Naperville, Ill./Benedictine) beat out a fielder's choice to break up a double play with Sandee scoring to make the score 3-1.
 
The Wildcats extended their lead in the bottom of the third. Patrick Herrera made the score 4-1 by reaching on a fielder's choice with the bases loaded, beating a throw from Ben Loyd (Pleasant Prairie, Wis./Kaskaskia College) at second base trying to turn a double play. Devin Burkes followed with a bases-clearing double to centerfield to put Kentucky up 6-1. Kentucky tacked on two more runs in the fifth on a two-run Lawrence single.
 
The Huskies got back on the board in the top of the sixth. Gregorio launched his sixth home run of the season over the right field wall to make the score 8-2. It was the junior's fourth home run in the last three games. Kentucky got that run back in the bottom of the sixth inning as Griffin Cameron drove in Burkes from second base on a single to left field, making the score 9-2.
 
NIU had a chance to get back in the game in the top of the seventh inning. The Huskies loaded the bases with one out on a Loyd single and walks by Sandee and Kosobucki. Nile Adcock entered the game from the Kentucky bullpen and got a strikeout and a flyout to end the threat.
 
Gregorio drove in two runs in the game, giving him 13 RBI in the last five games. Kosobucki, Parcell and Loyd each went 1-for-3 in the game. Gavin Micklinghoff (McHenry, Ill./McHenry County College) made his first career start on the mound, allowing six runs in 2.1 innings on six hits. Freshman Jack Olson (Antioch, Ill./Antioch) made his NIU debut in the bottom of the eighth and threw a scoreless inning of relief.
 
"Jack's been really good in our midweek bullpens, and with the doubleheader Sunday and the conference weekend coming up we probably had to go to some guys that have not thrown a lot," said Copeland. "We felt it was a great opportunity for Jack to get in there. At the end of the day, no matter what it looks like the job of a reliever is to put up zeroes and he did that."
 
NIU opens a three-game Mid-American Conference series at Miami on Friday, March 14 at 2 p.m. CT.
 
--NIU--