BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – The Northern Illinois University baseball team scored 14 runs on 17 hits Thursday afternoon at Steller Field to defeat the Bowling Green Falcons 14-8. The Huskies set a new single-season record for runs scored in the victory with 410, surpassing the 408 runs scored by the 2003 team.
 
"To be able to set the record with a couple games to play is a testament to what our guys do, the work they put in and the ability to have good at-bats and stay on the barrel," said head coach Ryan Copeland on his team's offensive accomplishment this season. "From day one back in the fall, our hitters bought in to what [assistant] Coach [Joe] Kelch does with them. The home run ball is a big part of our offense and we got a couple of those today."
 
NIU (21-31, 9-19 MAC) answered Bowling Green's three runs from the bottom of the first inning with five in the top of the second. Cooper Cohn (McHenry, Ill./McHenry) started the rally with a two-out walk off of Falcons starting pitcher Jacob Turner, followed by another walk to Nolan Sandee (Glendale, Wis./Nicolet). Kyle Hartmann (Sycamore, Ill./Sycamore) then reached on an error by Bowling Green second baseman Brayden Curlis that scored Cohn from second base to make the score 3-1. Charlie Parcell (Des Plaines, Ill./Maine West) ripped a double down the left field line to bring home Sandee and get the Huskies within a run at 3-2. After a Logan Gregorio (Naperville, Ill./Benedictine) walk loaded the bases, Gavin Baldwin (Nashville, Ill./SEMO) cleared them with a double to give the Huskies a 5-3 lead.
 
Bowling Green (31-20, 17-11 MAC) got a run back in the bottom of the third inning. Zack Horky led off with a triple to right center. Gavin Ganun drove in Horky on a groundout to Cohn at third base to make the score 5-4. NIU extended its lead in the top of the fourth inning. Hartmann and Parcell led off the frame with back-to-back infield singles. Gregorio then launched a three-run home run, his 18^th of the year, over the left centerfield wall to make the score 8-4.
 
"Logan's just been so good, so consistent all year long," Copeland said. "He's incredibly dangerous there in the two-hole and was all over the barrel today. His home runs have come in big moments for us when we need a spark and I can't say enough about what he's meant to our offense."
 
Will Couchman (Edina, Minn./NIACC) drew a walk with one out and later scored on a two-out double by Ben Loyd (Pleasant Prairie, Wis./Kaskaskia College) to put the Huskies up five runs, 9-4.
 
The Falcons closed the deficit to 9-6 in the bottom of the fifth. Ganun hit a double down the left field line to score Horky and make the score 9-5. Caden Parker was then hit by a Danny Cihocki (Princeton, Ill./Lake Land College) pitch. Caden Bates drove in Ganun with a single to right to put the score at 9-6. The Falcons loaded the bases with one out but Cihocki got Carter Mottice to ground into a double play to end the inning.
 
Couchman led off the top of the sixth inning with a home run to put NIU ahead 10-6. Hartmann later added a run on a groundout to put the Huskies back up by five, 11-6. Bowling Green scored a run in both the sixth and seventh innings to get within three at 11-8 but that was as close as the Falcons got. NIU tacked on three runs in the ninth, with JP Gauthier's (De Pere, Wis./Illinois State) two-run double plating the record-breaking runs.
 
"Every time it felt like Bowling Green got the game within reach, we were able to respond," Copeland said. "We finally broke it open in the ninth. We were frustrated with our offensive performance last weekend and the team put in a great week of work in practice. It showed because we swung the bats really well today."
 
Gregorio was 3-for-5 with three RBI on Thursday. He is one home run away from tying Colin Summerhill's single-season record of 19 set last season. Gregorio now has 68 RBI on the year, second-most in NIU history and three away from tying Scott Simon's record of 71 from the 2004 season.
 
Baldwin drove in four runs on Thursday to give him 60 RBI on the year. This is the first season since at least 1991 that NIU has had two hitters with at least 60 RBI. Parcell was 4-for-6 from the leadoff spot, tying a season-high in hits. Couchman also tied a season-high with three hits.
 
The series resumes tomorrow, Friday, May 16 at 12 p.m. CT.
 
--NIU--