DeKALB, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University baseball team got a solid effort on the mound from freshman Carter Cox (St. Peters, Mo./Fort Zumwalt South) and sophomore Danny Cihocki (Princeton, Ill./Lake Land College) and defeated the Western Michigan Broncos 4-2 on Sunday afternoon at Ralph McKinzie Field at Walt & Janice Owens Park.
 
"That's how the game's supposed to be played," said head coach Ryan Copeland. "We felt good about Carter because he's a competitor. He wasn't sharp, and walked six, but we always know he's going to find a way to get outs. Danny commanded his fastball, got some weak contact, and was able to close it out. That's what it takes to find a way to win a game. We played hard and competed and did just enough offensively to get it done."
 
Cox walked the first two batters he faced but bounced back with strikeouts of Dylan Nevar and Avery Thielman. He got Lucas Rick to fly out to strand the two runners on base. Charlie Parcell (Des Plaines, Ill./Maine West) reached base on an error to start the bottom of the first. He stole second and reached third on a Zach Vriesenga wild pitch. JP Gauthier (De Pere, Wis./Illinois State) put NIU on the board with a single up the middle, scoring Parcell to give the Huskies a 1-0 lead. Will Couchman (Edina, Minn./NIACC) drew a walk with two outs and took second base on another wild pitch Gavin Baldwin (Nashville, Ill./SEMO) brought Couchman around to score with a single through the left side to put the Huskies up 2-0.
 
Western Michigan (12-27, 8-13 MAC) got on the board in the second as Chris Akers drove home Grady Mee with an RBI single. Cox struck out Brendan Harrity and Tanner Mally, then got Michael Maloney to fly out to Parcell in centerfield to end the inning.

NIU (16-27, 5-16 MAC) extended its lead in the bottom of the third. Couchman reached base on a one-out single. Baldwin followed with a double off the left centerfield wall, scoring Couchman all the way from first to make the score 3-1. Cooper Cohn (McHenry, Ill./McHenry) then ripped a single up the middle to drive in Baldwin and put the Huskies up 4-1. Cox allowed two hits and a walk in the fourth and fifth innings combined and held WMU scoreless to put himself in position for his first career win.
 
Cihocki entered the game in the sixth inning and promptly retired the first five batters he faced. He hit Lucas Rick with a pitch with two outs in the seventh. Cooper Hums entered the game to pinch-run for Rick and was picked off by Cihocki to end the inning. The Broncos put a run on the board in the ninth. With Mally at second base after a one-out double, Maloney reached on an infield single to Couchman at second base. Couchman's attempt to throw out Maloney was wide of first base, allowing Mally to score and get Western Michigan within two at 4-2. Cihocki slammed the door on the Broncos with a flyout and groundout to lock up the NIU win.
 
"Danny has been in a hybrid role all year and established himself early as our best guy out of the pen," Copeland said. "He put up our first 1-2-3 inning in awhile and was lights out today. Even with that little threat in the ninth, we still felt really good about our chances."
 
Cihocki earned his fourth save of the year. He threw a season-high four innings, allowing one unearned run on two hits and two strikeouts. Cox went five innings for the second consecutive weekend, allowing one run on four hits with six walks and six strikeouts. Baldwin was 2-for-4 at the late with two RBI, his second multi-hit game out of his last 13.
 
"Gavin has been struggling and we've been trying to figure some things out with him," said Copeland about the senior first baseman. "Hopefully today is a sign of things to come for him. When we have him rolling with Logan and Will swinging the bats like they do, we're really hard to beat in the middle of the order."
 
NIU heads to Milwaukee on Tuesday, April 29 for an 11 a.m. game against the Panthers.
 
--NIU--