DeKALB, IL – The Northern Illinois University baseball team won it's fourth game in a row on Tuesday night, snapping the Eastern Illinois Panthers' seven-game winning streak with a 5-4 10-inning win at Coaches Stadium.
 
"Midweek games can get a little weird but we found a way to win with a big hit from Cole [Smith] and Gavin Micklinghoff did enough to get the final three outs," said head coach Ryan Copeland. "It's a good road win against a pretty good ballclub over there."
 
The Huskies had 11 hits in the game and held Eastern Illinois to only four. Charlie Parcell (Des Plaines, Ill./Maine West) had three hits in five at-bats, drawing a walk and stealing a base. Caden Robertson (Magnolia, Texas/Central Oklahoma) extended his hitting streak to 11 games with an infield single in the third inning.
 
"Charlie's a tough out," Copeland said about NIU's centerfielder and lead-off hitter. "He's always on base and his maturation as a hitter leads to his walks. When he gets going we get really tough because we get a lot of length out of the lineup."
 
NIU (14-7) broke a 1-1 tie in the top of the sixth. Wyatt Wawro (Darien, Ill./Downers Grove South) led off with a single. Gavin Baldwin (Nashville, Ill./SEMO) then launched a two-run home run over the right centerfield wall to give the Huskies a 3-1 lead. The Panthers responded with three runs in the bottom of the seventh with Joey Hagen's run on a wild pitch giving Eastern Illinois a 4-3 lead.
 
The Huskies tied the game 4-4 in the top of the eighth. Baldwin and Vinny Spotofora (Shorewood, Ill./Lake Land College) drew back-to-back walks to lead off the inning. A Kayden Jennings (Edwardsville, Ill./Edwardsville) pinch-hit sacrifice bunt advanced the runners to second and third. Marcus Romero (Brighton, Colo./South Mountain College) brought home Baldwin on a groundout to tie the game. The Panthers had two runners on with one out in the bottom of the inning but Nick Bassi (Zionsville, Ind./St. Charles CC) got back-to-back strikeouts to keep the game tied.
 
Neither team scored in the ninth, sending the game to extra innings. Charlie Parcell (Des Plaines, Ill./Maine West) reached on a single with one out in the 10^th. Cole Smith (Dubuque, Iowa/Bradley) then laced a double to the right field corner that Parcell scored on to put the Huskies up 5-4.
 
"Cole was all over the barrel a couple times early in the game," said Copeland. "He's come up with big hits all year so when Charlie got on first, there was no one else in our lineup that we wanted up in that spot. He smoked that ball and that's all we needed there to get the job done."
 
Gavin Micklinghoff (McHenry, Ill./McHenry County College) entered the game from the NIU bullpen for the bottom of the 10^th. He walked the first two batters he faced but got the next three to fly out to lock up the save as NIU went on to win 5-4.
 
EIU (13-9) loaded the bases in the bottom of the first against NIU starting pitcher Mason Orton (Mahomet, Ill./Mahomet-Seymour) on a single, walk and hit by pitch. Orton settled in and struck out Mike O'Conor and Ethan Rossi for the first two outs. A wild pitch allowed James Love to score and put the Panthers up 1-0. Orton struck out Luke Melton to end the inning and hold Eastern Illinois to one run.
 
NIU tied the game in the top of the third. Sophomore catcher Connor Mendell (St. Peters, Mo./Fort Zumwalt South) got the Huskies' first out of the game with a one-out double. Parcell then hit a single to advance Mendell to third, followed by a Smith sacrifice fly to centerfield to bring Mendell home and level the game 1-1.
 
Bassi earned the win in relief for NIU, throwing 1.2 innings of scoreless relief with no hits allowed, one walk and two strikeouts. Orton went a season-high four innings, allowing one run on two hits with three walks and four strikeouts.
 
"Mason really settled in after that first inning and did a great job of giving us a chance today," Copeland said. "We needed somebody to step up late in the game and Nick was the man. We don't find a way to win the game if we don't get zeros from him."
 
NIU is back home at Ralph McKinzie Field at Walt & Janice Owens Park this weekend for a three-game series against Bowling Green starting Friday, March 27 at 3 p.m.
 
--NIU--