Baseball | March 19

DeKALB, IL – The Northern Illinois University baseball team plays its first home games of the season this weekend at Ralph McKinzie Field at Walt & Janice Owens Park, taking on the reigning Mid-American Conference champion Miami RedHawks.
 
For every Saturday home game, fans will have the opportunity to participate in "Baseball Bingo" presented by Sonic. Fans can pick up their complimentary bingo card from the marketing table and winners will receive prizes courtesy of Sonic. Sundays are Kids Day At The Ballpark presented by Raising Cane's. Following each Sunday home game kids ages 12 and under can run the bases postgame. Admission to NIU Baseball games is free.
 
NIU (10-7, 3-3 MAC) comes home after taking one game out of three at Toledo last weekend. Senior designated hitter Caden Robertson (Magnolia, Texas/Central Oklahoma) had a home run in each game of the series, extending his streak of consecutive games with a home run to seven. Robertson was named the MAC Player of the Week on March 9 after hitting .438 with four home runs, a double, a triple and 11 RBI in the Huskies' series win at Ohio.  He leads the MAC with 10 home runs and is tied for the league lead in RBI with 27.
 
On the mound Max Vaisvila (Villa Park, Ill./Wabash Valley College) is one of four pitchers in the MAC to have a league-leading three wins. Vaisvila has won each of his last three starts, posting a 1.89 earned run average with 17 strikeouts in 19.0 innings pitched. He allowed two runs on six hits at Toledo on March 14, tying his season-high with seven innings pitched. Vaisvila is second in the MAC with 31 strikeouts.
 
Miami (14-5, 5-1 MAC) has won six of its last seven games after a 13-7 win over Dayton on Wednesday. The RedHawks are 5-1 in the MAC having swept a series from Eastern Michigan and taking two out of three last weekend against Bowling Green. Miami leads the MAC in on-base percentage (.448), slugging percentage (.506), home runs and runs scored. Redshirt-Senior Evan Applewick is second in the MAC with nine home runs and leads the conference with 25 runs scored.
 
The Huskies are on the road next Tuesday, March 24^th to face Eastern Illinois at 3 p.m. NIU hosts Bowling Green March 27-29.
 
--NIU--