TOLEDO, Ohio - The Northern Illinois University baseball team lost its first weekend series of the season on Sunday as the Toledo Rockets scored in each inning of a 17-2 seven-inning win at Scott Park.
"There's no excuse for how we lost today," said head coach
Ryan Copeland. "We need some guys in the bullpen to pick some people up and we just didn't do that. We fully expected to come here, get a win and take care of the series and didn't do that."
Senior
Caden Robertson (Magnolia, Texas/Central Oklahoma) extended his streak of consecutive games with a home run to seven on Sunday, going yard in the top of the fifth. It was his eighth home run in the last seven games.
Gavin Baldwin (Nashville, Ill./SEMO) was 2-for-4 with an RBI single.
Charlie Parcell (Des Plaines, Ill./Maine West) tied a season-high with three hits.
Toledo (9-9, 5-1 MAC) led 3-0 after two innings. The Huskies got on the board in the top of the third. With runners at the corners and two outs Baldwin laced a single to left field to score
Vinny Spotofora (Shorewood, Ill./Lake Land College) to make the score 3-1.
Ivan Dahlberg (Minooka, Ill./Illinois-Springfield) then drew a walk to load the bases. Rockets starting pitcher Hayden Frey left the bases loaded by getting a fielder's choice to end the inning.
"We hit a few balls hard early, especially in the first inning, but didn't have much to show for it," Copeland said. "We got the solo run there in the third and had a chance to really add on but didn't get the big hit."
Jacob Payne extended the Toledo lead to 4-1 in the bottom of the third with a solo home run. Troy Sudbrook and Alex McCranie hit back-to-back home runs in the fourth to make the score 6-1. Robertson launched his Mid-American Conference leading 10th home run of the year with one out in the top of the fifth, making the score 6-2 but that would be NIU's last run of the game. The Rockets scored six runs in the fifth and five more in the sixth to earn the run-rule victory.
NIU (10-7, 3-3 MAC) pitching allowed eight walks and five home runs on Sunday. Sudbrook had two home runs and drove in four runs on the day. Charlie Scholvin was 1-for-3 with a game-high five RBI. Frey allowed two runs on seven hits for the win on the mound, walking two Huskies while striking out four.
After 17 games on the road, the Huskies host Miami for its first home series at Ralph McKinzie Field at Walt & Janice Owens Park March 20-22. First pitch of the home opener on Friday, March 20 is at 3 p.m. CT.
"We're excited to play at home, at a place we're familiar with," said Copeland. "I think we're going to play extremely well against another quality team."
—NIU—
