AKRON, Ohio – The Northern Illinois University baseball team was held to six hits on Sunday and left 11 runners on base in a 4-3 loss to the Akron Zips at Skeeles Field.
"We're disappointed we couldn't finish the job this weekend, but we'll take a road series win in the MAC whenever we can get it," said head coach
Ryan Copeland. "We just got beat today. We couldn't really get anything going offensively. We had our opportunities to get a big hit and couldn't take advantage, and on the flip side our defense cost us a couple runs."
Vinny Spotofora (Shorewood, Ill./Lake Land College) was 3-for-4 for the Huskies at the plate with a triple and two runs scored.
Wyatt Wawro (Darien, Ill./Downers Grove South) reached base four times from the leadoff spot, going 2-for-2 with a walk, a hit by pitch and a sacrifice fly.
"Vinny always has good at-bats and feel good with him out there at third base," Copeland said. "He did his best to give us a spark from the nine-hole with three hits today. Wyatt does a good job of not being overmatched by the left-on-left matchup and moving him to the top of the lineup let us try to maximize the guys that could give us the best chance to go get on base."
NIU (22-12, 14-7 MAC) took an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first. Wawro led off with a walk, getting to third on a one-out
Gavin Baldwin (Nashville, Ill./SEMO) double.
Ivan Dahlberg (Minooka, Ill./Illinois-Springfield) drew a walk to load the bases. After a strikeout for the second out,
Nolan Sandee (Glendale, Wis./Nicolet) drew a walk to score Wawro. The Zips had a chance to go in front in the bottom of the second. Brady Bowen led off with a single, followed by a Brennan Morgan walk and Prince DeBoskie being hit by a
Carter Cox (St. Peters, Mo./Fort Zumwalt South) pitch. Cox then struck out Gio Melchione and Tucker Biehl for the first two outs. Kelton Phillips lined out to end the inning.
Akron (17-23, 7-14 MAC) broke through with three runs in the bottom of the third, capped by a two-run single from Morgan to take a 3-1 lead. The Huskies got a run back in the top of the fourth. NIU loaded the bases with one out on base hits from Wawro and Spotofora as well as
Caden Robertson (Magnolia, Texas/Central Oklahoma) being hit by a pitch. Baldwin hit a sacrifice fly to left field to score Spotofora and make the score 3-2.
The Zips went back up by two in the bottom of the sixth. Cox retired the first two Akron batters of the inning but allowed consecutive infield singles to Tucker Biehl and Kelton Philips.
John Lyman (Minneapolis, Minn./NIACC) entered the game from the bullpen and walked Brody Chrisman and Bowen, which scored Biehl to give the Zips a 4-2 lead.
Josh Loren (North Liberty, Iowa/Kirkwood CC) came in to pitch for Lyman and got Easton Amundson to fly out to Wawro in left field to end the inning.
The Huskies were within a run one more time in the eighth inning. Spotofora hit a triple down the left field line with one out. Wawro drove him in with a sacrifice fly to make the score 4-3. Akron had an opportunity to extend its lead in the bottom of the inning. The Zips had runners at first and third with two out when
Nick Bassi (Zionsville, Ind./St. Charles CC) got a popout to quell the threat. Akron's closer Floyd McKenna came on in the ninth and retired the NIU side in order to get his fourth save of the year and salvage a win for the Zips in the series.
"When you play a whole series, and really all year, feeling you can break through at any moment, you've got to show you can do it late in the game," said Copeland. "Akron did a good job of throwing strikes when they needed to and were better defensively today than the first two games."
Bowen was 3-for-4 for Akron with a run scored. Landon Vandegrift earned the win on the mound, allowing one run in 2.2 innings of relief.
NIU heads to UIC on Tuesday, April 21 for a 6 p.m. CT showdown before hosting Eastern Michigan next weekend.
--NIU--
