DeKALB, IL – The Northern Illinois University baseball team led 4-1 early against the Western Michigan Broncos on Saturday at Ralph McKinzie Field at Walt and Janice Owens Park, but the visitors scored three runs in the fourth and sixth innings to take the lead and pulled away for a 10-6 win.
 
Western Michigan (12-26, 8-12 MAC) put the first run on the board in the top of the first. A two-out single by Avery Thielman scored Tanner Mally to give the Broncos a 1-0 lead. NIU responded in the bottom of the first. Charlie Parcell (Des Plaines, Ill./Maine West) was hit by a pitch leading off the inning, getting to third on a one-out double from JP Gauthier (De Pere, Wis./Illinois State). Will Couchman (Edina, Minn./NIACC) then hit a groundball to Thielman at first base, who fired home to throw out Parcell but the Huskies centerfielder beat the tag to tie the game 1-1. Gavin Baldwin (Nashville, Ill./SEMO) followed with a sacrifice fly to score Gauthier and put the Huskies up 2-1.
 
NIU (15-27, 4-16 MAC) starting pitcher Ty Brachbill (Shelbyville, Ill./Shelbyville) stranded two runners on base in the second and had three strikeouts through his first three innings. The Huskies extended their lead in the bottom of the third. Logan Gregorio (Naperville, Ill./Benedictine) ripped a single through the right side with one out. Gauthier then launched a two-run home run over the left field wall to make the score 4-1.
 
The Broncos tied the game in the fourth, scoring three runs with a two-run Michael Maloney single making the score 4-4. NIU had a chance to break the tie in the bottom of the fifth. The Huskies had runners at first and second with one out after Gregorio was hit by a pitch and Gauthier drew a walk. Couchman flew out to centerfield for the second out and Baldwin was struck out by Western Michigan reliever Adam Lehmann to end the inning.
 
Three straight hits for the Broncos put Western Michigan in the lead in the sixth. Tanner Mally and Maloney led off with back-to-back singles. Dylan Nevar then laced a single through the right side to score Mally and give WMU a 5-4 lead. With two outs and the bases loaded, Connor Ostrander delivered a two-run single to make the score 7-4.
 
"We're still struggling on the mound," said head coach Ryan Copeland. "I told our guys that college teams win 5-1, 6-2 a lot of the time. You pitch it well, play good defense and find a way to win. It just feels like if we don't score double-digit runs, it's tough to win."
 
Western Michigan led 8-5 in the eighth when freshman Kyle Hartmann (Sycamore, Ill./Sycamore) came off the bench as a pinch-hitter. Hartmann crushed a home run over the left field wall to make the score 8-6, his first career hit and first career home run.
 
"Kyle is a guy we think very highly of and see him as a big part of our future," Copeland said. "We've been trying to pick and choose moments for his at-bats. He's started a couple midweeks. It just felt like time to get a different look out there and he was rewarded with his first career hit being a home run. We know he has that ability and it was good to see him get off the schneid there."
 
That would be as close as NIU would get. The Broncos tacked on two runs in the ninth for the 10-6 final score.
 
Parcell was 3-for-4 in the game with two runs scored. He has reached base eight times so far in the series. Gauthier was also 3-for-4 and drove in three runs. NIU's two home runs in the game give the Huskies 69 for the season, one shy of tying the single-season record of 70 set in 2003.
 
NIU and Western Michigan wrap up their weekend series on Sunday, April 27 at 1 p.m.
 
--NIU--