AMHERST, Mass. – The Northern Illinois University baseball team needed 11 innings on Friday afternoon to get a split of a doubleheader at Earl Lorden Field against the UMass Minutemen, winning game two 6-4 after dropping the opener 4-0.
 
"I give a lot of credit to UMass," said head coach Ryan Copeland. "They played really well over there, certainly better than their record says. We were not very good offensively all day, especially in game one. I'd consider ourselves pretty fortunate to get a split today. We've got to find a way to play better baseball tomorrow, find a way to be on the barrel more and go win another series."
 
The nightcap started as a pitcher's duel between NIU's Max Vaisvila (Villa Park, Ill./Wabash Valley College) and UMass' Adam Merritt. Vaisvila stranded the bases loaded in the Minutemen's half of the first and retired the side in order in the third. Merritt held NIU without a hit in the first three innings.
 
NIU (17-9, 9-5 MAC) took the lead in the top of the fourth. Cole Smith (Dubuque, Iowa/Bradley) led off with a single, then took second base on a wild pitch. Caden Robertson (Magnolia, Texas/Central Oklahoma) looped a single to right center that scored Smith from second base to give the Huskies a 1-0 lead. Robertson took second base on the throw home and advanced to third on an Ivan Dahlberg (Minooka, Ill./Illinois-Springfield) flyout. Gavin Baldwin (Nashville, Ill./SEMO) drove in Robertson with a sacrifice fly to double NIU's lead to 2-0.
 
UMass (6-16, 2-12 MAC) got a run back in the bottom of the fourth. With the bases loaded and no outs Ryan Kolben hit a sacrifice fly to score Vance Bonior and make the score 2-1. Vaisvila got two more flyouts to end the inning. The Minutemen tied the game in the bottom of the fifth as a Reece McCarthy single scored Ty Fox from second base to put the score at 2-2.
 
The Huskies took back the lead in the top of the sixth. Smith reached on an infield single with one out in the inning. He then stole second, going to third as the throw from the catcher Kolben went into the outfield. Robertson drove in Smith with a sacrifice fly to put NIU up 3-2. The senior designated hitter drove in his third run of the game in the top of the eighth on a double that scored Nolan Sandee and gave the Huskies a 4-2 lead.
 
The Minutemen responded in the bottom of the eighth with an RBI single off the bat of Marc Willi that made the score 4-3. Ty Fox led off the bottom of the ninth with a single. He got to second on a groundout. A Matt Tarr (North Aurora, Ill./Purdue) wild pitch allowed Fox to get to third. McCarthy drove in Fox with a sacrifice fly to tie the game 4-4 and send game two into extra innings.
 
Both teams left two runners on base in the 10^th. NIU rallied with two outs to take the lead in the top of the 11^th. Vinny Spotofora (Shorewood, Ill./Lake Land College) hit a double to left field then scored on a Marcus Romero (Brighton, Colo./South Mountain College) single up the middle to give the Huskies a 5-4 lead. Sandee drew a walk to keep the inning alive. The duo Sandee executed a double steal to get to second and third respectively. With a 3-2 count on Charlie Parcell (Des Plaines, Ill./Maine West), Romero stole home to put NIU up 6-4.
 
"We've shown we can be versatile and do some different things offensively," Copeland said. "It didn't feel like we were going to be able to hit that big home run to put the game out of reach. We decided to double steal on a pitching change to catch them off guard. Once we got to two strikes, Coach Kelch had Marcus steal home and he executed it perfectly. It was nice to get that extra run."
 
Nick Bassi (Zionsville, Ind./St. Charles CC) got the first out of the bottom of the 11^th on a Fox flyout. McCarthy and Will Briggs hit back-to-back singles to get the tying runs on base for UMass. Bassi then hit Dean Gobeil with a pitch to load the bases. John Lyman (Minneapolis, Minn./NIACC) entered from the bullpen and struck out both Braden Sullivan and Jared Munoz to get the save and split the twinbill.
 
Robertson was 2-for-4 in game two with three RBI. Smith also had two hits and scored two runs. Vaisvila had a 20-inning scoreless streak after holding UMass off the board in the first three innings, becoming the first NIU pitcher since Jeremy Gonzales in 2011 to have a scoreless streak of at least 20 innings. The senior allowed two runs in five innings in game two, scattering seven hits with a walk and a strikeout. Bassi moved to 3-0 on the year, throwing 1.1 innings of scoreless relief as Lyman got his second save of the season.
 
The Huskies best chance to get on the board early in game one came in the top of the first. Charlie Parcell led off with a single, then stole second base with one out. Caden Robertson drew a walk to give NIU runners at first at second but the Minutemen's starting pitcher Callen Powers got back-to-back strikeouts to end the inning.
 
UMass went up 2-0 in the bottom of the second on a Vance Bonior two-run home run. The Minutemen extended the lead in the bottom of the third. Anthony Tirado led off with a single, then stole second base. After a ground out and flyout, Briggs hit a single up the middle to score Tirado and put UMass ahead 3-0.
 
NIU got its first two batters on base in the top of the sixth. Cole Smith reached on a single through the left side of the infield, followed by a Robertson walk. Powers then retired the next three Huskies to keep NIU off the board. Gavin O'Brien hit a lead-off home run in bottom of the eighth to give the Minutemen a 4-0 lead.
 
The two teams wrap up their series on Saturday, April 4 at 9:30 A.M. CT.
 
--NIU--