DeKALB, IL – Senior pitcher Max Vaisvila (Villa Park, Ill./Wabash Valley College) threw the Northern Illinois University baseball team's first complete game in almost two years on Saturday, holding the Miami RedHawks to one run in a 5-1 win Saturday afternoon at Ralph McKinzie Field at Walt & Janice Owens Park.
 
"Max has been really good this year," said head coach Ryan Copeland. "I knew if we could find a way to win yesterday we were going to feel really good about our chances today. For Max to go throw a complete game and save our bullpen for tomorrow is huge. You can't say enough about his outing."
 
Vaisvila scattered five hits in the game, allowing just one walk while striking out five RedHawks. He has now won each of his last four starts, posting a 1.61 earned run average with 22 strikeouts against three walks in 28 innings pitched.
 
"I've put a lot of work in during the offseason and it's paid off," Vaisvila said. "I established the fastball early which made it easy to spin them late in the game. My slider and changeup worked really well. I was finishing the game no matter what."
 
Miami (14-7, 5-3 MAC) manufactured its only run of the game in the top of the first. Marcus Dierks led off with a single then stole second base. A Ryan Novak flyout to deep centerfield allowed Dierks to advance to third base. Evan Appelwick then grounded out to NIU shortstop Nolan Sandee (Glendale, Wis./Nicolet), scoring Dierks to put the RedHawks up 1-0.
 
NIU (12-7, 5-3 MAC) quickly responded in the bottom of the first. Charlie Parcell (Des Plaines, Ill./Maine West) was hit by Cameron Novak's first pitch of the game. Two pitches later Cole Smith (Dubuque, Iowa/Bradley) hit a double down the left field line, scoring Parcell all the way from first base to tie the game 1-1. After a flyout Caden Robertson (Magnolia, Texas/Central Oklahoma) hit a single to right field, scoring Smith to give the Huskies a 2-1 lead. Robertson advanced to second on the throw from the outfield, then took third base on a throwing error by Miami catcher Carson Raether. Ivan Dahlberg (Minooka, Ill./Illinois-Springfield) drove in Robertson with a groundout to make the score 3-1.
 
"Runs were going to be a premium today because the ball wasn't going to leave the park," Copeland said. "This game is all about momentum and to put up a three-spot after they scored set the tone for the rest of the game. We played elite defense today and Max pounded the zone."
 
Vaisvila allowed a leadoff single to Ignacio Gonzalez in the second, then retired the next 16 Miami batters he faced. The Huskies extended the lead in the bottom of the fifth. Robertson led off with a triple then scored on a Dahlberg sacrifice fly to put the score at 4-1. NIU went up 5-1 in the eighth inning as a two-out Smith single scored Sandee from second base. Miami got two runners on base in the ninth, but Vaisvila completed the game by getting Raether to ground out to Smith at second base to lock up the series win for NIU.
 
Smith was 3-for-5 at the plate with two RBI. Robertson also had three hits to extend his current hitting streak to nine games. Dahlberg's two RBI give him seven for the series. This is NIU's first series win over Miami since 2019 and first in DeKalb since 2018.
 
"I'm really happy with where we're at," Copeland said. "We want to make a jump in this league and be taken seriously. In order to do that you have to beat really good teams like Miami who won the MAC last season and were preseason favorites this year. I've told our players about making this place harder to play. I can't say enough about the atmosphere, the crowd, the engagement. It was a really good environment today."
 
NIU and Miami wrap up this weekend's series on Sunday, March 22 at 1 p.m.
 
--NIU--