Baseball | April 24

DeKALB, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University baseball team hosts the Western Michigan Broncos this weekend for a three-game Mid-American Conference series at Ralph McKinzie Field at Walt and Janice Owens Park beginning Friday, April 25 at 3 p.m.
 
NIU Baseball is partnering with the American Heart Association for Saturday's 2 p.m. game for an AHA wristband giveaway. Sunday's 1 p.m. game is Salute to Service and Kids Day at the Ballpark. There will be a Touch-A-Truck outside Ralph McKinzie Field and kids can run the bases after the game sponsored by Raising Canes.
 
NIU (15-25, 4-14 MAC) split its two midweek games this week. The Huskies came back from being down 4-1 at Valparaiso Tuesday for an 8-6 win. NIU scored six runs in the eighth inning sparked by a Cooper Cohn (McHenry, Ill./McHenry) two-run home run. Junior pitcher Nick Bassi (Zionsville, Ind./St. Charles CC) earned his first career win, throwing two scoreless innings with three strikeouts.
 
On Wednesday the Huskies lost 14-6 at Illinois State. JP Gauthier (De Pere, Wis./Illinois State) hit his ninth home run of the season, a three-run shot, to get NIU within two at 6-4 in the fifth inning. It was NIU's 63^rd home run of the season, tying the Huskies with Ball State for the MAC lead. This is the second-most home runs the Huskies have hit in a single season. The 2003 NIU baseball team hit 70 home runs.
 
Junior catcher Logan Gregorio (Naperville, Ill./Benedictine) leads NIU with 14 home runs, 53 RBI, and a .341 batting average. He is currently leading the MAC in RBI and is second in home runs to Ben Slanker of Ohio who has 16. Gregorio has reached base safely in 18 straight games and has had a hit in 17 of those 18 games. His 14 home runs are already the third-most in a single season in program history.
 
Western Michigan (10-26, 6-12 MAC), the defending MAC Tournament champion, is coming off being swept at Toledo last weekend. The Broncos enter the weekend 2.5 games back of Toledo for the sixth and final spot in the upcoming MAC Tournament. Sophomore Tanner Mally leads the Broncos with a .346 batting average and 31 runs scored. Pitcher Ty McKinstry has struck out 38 batters in 55.1 innings pitched, leading Western Michigan with a 4.23 ERA. The Broncos took two out of three against against NIU last season in Kalamazoo, Western Michigan's first series win against the Huskies since 2019.
 
NIU opens its final homestand of the season on Tuesday, May 6 at 2 p.m. against Illinois State before hosting Toledo May 9-11.
 
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