KALAMAZOO, Mich. - The Northern Illinois University baseball team dropped its first series since March on Friday, falling 12-2 in eight innings against the Western Michigan Broncos at Robert J. Bobb Stadium at Hyames Field.
"We've had a hard time with our offense the last couple games," said head coach
Ryan Copeland. "We have to figure it out fast because this is a matchup that could happen against in the first round of the Mid-American Conference tournament."
Ivan Dahlberg (Minooka, Ill./Illinois-Springfield) was 2-for-2 with a walk on Friday as the Huskies had five hits in the game.
Wyatt Wawro (Darien, Ill./Downers Grove South),
Gavin Baldwin (Nashville, Ill./SEMO) and
Cole Smith (Dubuque, Ill./Bradley) each had a hit as well.
Friday's game started as a pitchers duel between NIU's
Carter Cox (St. Peters, Mo./Fort Zumwalt South) and Western Michigan's Ricky Kidd. Both pitchers put zeroes on the board in the first three innings. Cox stranded two runners on base in the bottom of the first, getting Lucas Rick to fly out to Wawro in right field to end the inning. Wawro got the Huskies' first hit in the game with a two-out single in the top of the third but he was caught stealing to end the inning.
Western Michigan (25-23, 19-13 MAC) had two runners on base in the bottom of the third after singles from Connor Ostrander and Drew Howard. Cox got Michael Maloney to hit into a 5-3 double play to keep the game scoreless. The Broncos took the lead in the bottom of the fourth. WMU loaded the bases on an Avery Thielman double followed by Rick being hit by a pitch and a Mark Mennecke single. A passed ball allowed Thielman to score and put the Broncos up 1-0. Cox got Mason Pilarski to pop out for the first out but Nolan Zajac reached on a
Vinny Spotofora throwing error on a bunt which scored two runs and put WMU ahead 3-0. The Broncos loaded the bases on back-to-back hit by pitches, setting up Howard for a two-run double that made the score 5-0.
"Western Michigan is tough to pitch to," Copeland said. "They're a little bit different than most teams in the MAC. They don't strike out a lot, they don't chase as much and they make you play defense. "
WMU added two runs in the bottom of the fifth on a Pilarski squeeze bunt and a Zajac RBI single to take a 7-0 lead. Thielman made the score 9-0 with a two-run home run in the bottom of the sixth.
NIU (31-16, 21-11 MAC) got on the board in the top of the seventh. Smith led off with a single off of Broncos reliever Evan Shapiro. After a flyout,
Gavin Baldwin hit a two-run home run over the left centerfield wall to make the score 9-2. It was the graduate student's 12th home run this season and 27th of his NIU career.
"If we're going to make a run, Gavin's got to be a guy that can drive the ball and get some big hits for us," said Copeland. "He's done a good job of fighting through some struggles. Hopefully over the next couple of days going into the tournament he gets in that batter's box as confident as we know he can be and it helps us go win games."
WMU put the game away with three runs in the bottom of the eighth to win 12-2 and take the series. This is NIU's first series loss since March 13-15 at Toledo when the Rockets won two out of three. It is also the first time the Huskies have lost three consecutive games all season.
NIU and Western Michigan wrap up this weekend's series on Saturday, May 16 at 12 p.m. CT. The Huskies can lock up third place in the league, and tie their best MAC finish since 2011, with a win or a Toledo loss at Kent State.
—NIU—
