DeKALB, IL – The Northern Illinois University baseball team led 9-1 after two innings on Tuesday afternoon against the Valparaiso Beacons and cruised to an 11-5 win at Ralph McKinzie Field at Walt & Janice Owens Park.
"We were really good offensively in the first two innings," said head coach
Ryan Copeland. "It's a good win and we took care of business. As good as our process was to start the game, it got away from us a bit in the middle innings. We've got to be tougher mentally to avoid that."
The Huskies are now 10-0 this season when scoring at least 10 runs. Freshman left fielder and leadoff batter
Wyatt Wawro (Darien, Ill./Downers Grove South) had three hits and scored twice, extending his current hitting streak to 11 games.
Cole Smith (Dubuque, Iowa/Bradley) was 2-for-4 and drove in a game-high three runs.
Marcus Romero (Brighton, Colo./South Mountain College),
Nolan Sandee (Glendale, Wis./Nicolet) and
Charlie Parcell (Des Plaines, Ill./Maine West) also had two hits apiece.
Valparaiso (10-30) put a run on the board in the top of the first. Michael Kuska led off with a walk and stole second. Thomas Cooper laced a single to left center to score Kuska and give the Beacons a 1-0 lead.
Mason Orton (Mahomet, Ill./Mahomet-Seymour) struck out Louie Kegerreis and Cal Schembra to end the inning.
NIU (26-13) responded in the bottom of the first inning. Wawro reached on an infield single, reaching second base on a throwing error by Cooper at shortstop. Smith drove in Wawro with a base hit to right field to tie the game 1-1. After a strikeout,
Vinny Spotofora (Shorewood, Ill./Lake Land College) was hit by a pitch. With Romero up to bat, the Huskies pulled off a double steal. Catcher Eli Riley's throw to second went into centerfield, allowing Smith to score and Spotofora to get third base. Romero drove in Spotofora with a single to give the Huskies a 3-1 lead.
The Huskies extended the lead in the second, scoring six times to take a 9-1 lead. Parcell had two hits in the inning, leading off with a single and scoring on a Wawro double and also driving in a run with an infield single with two outs. He is the first NIU hitter to have two hits in an inning since Sandee did it at Nicholls on Feb. 16, 2025. Spotofora put NIU up 7-1 with a two-run double off the centerfield wall, scoring Smith and
Caden Robertson (Magnolia, Texas/Central Oklahoma).
Valpo's bullpen held NIU to one hit over the next three innings. The Beacons scored three runs in the fourth, highlighted by a Bryan Hatch two-run home run, to get within five runs at 9-4. NIU got a run back in the bottom of the sixth on a two-out Sandee RBI single to go up 10-4. Both sides scored a run in the seventh with a Smith sacrifice fly matching a Kuska RBI single to make the score 11-5.
The Huskies' relief corps of
Josh Loren (North Liberty, Iowa/Kirkwood CC),
Blake Gaskey (Davenport, Iowa/Ohio),
Matt Tarr (North Aurora, Ill./Purdue) and
Cooper Cohn (McHenry, Ill./McHenry) held Valpo to one run on three hits over the final four innings. Tarr struck out the side in the top of the eighth as Cohn had two strikeouts in a 1-2-3 top of the ninth to secure the victory.
"Our bullpen was outstanding today," Copeland said. "Matt and Cooper are starting to become a formidable 1-2 punch. I really loved the way we closed the game. To allow just five runs in a midweek game on an offensive day is really good."
NIU heads to Mount Pleasant, Mich. this weekend for a Mid-American Conference series against the Central Michigan Chippewas. The series begins Friday, May 1 at 2 p.m. CT.
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