AVON, Ohio - The Northern Illinois University baseball team shut out the Western Michigan Broncos 11-0 in seven innings to win its opening game Wednesday night at the 2026 Mid-American Conference Baseball Championship at ForeFront Field.
"I know how our guys are and how tough they are," said head coach
Ryan Copeland after the Huskies' first win at the MAC Tournament since 2019. "Every time we've hit a little bit of adversity this year, we've come out and played our best game of the year. I felt really good about tonight. It's a very good team over there so you never know exactly what's going to happen. Max was outstanding and we were as good as it gets offensively."
Senior pitcher
Max Vaisvila (Villa Park, Ill./Wabash Valley College) held the Broncos to one hit and one walk in the game, posting NIU's second-ever shutout at the MAC Tournament. Vaisvila struck out 10 Broncos hitters in his second one-hit shutout of the season. He held Bowling Green to one hit with 14 strikeouts on March 29th in a 5-0 victory.
"I love the big games," said Vaisvila after his eighth victory of the year. "It locks me in more. I went out there and did what I do all year. I had to get ahead of them and land all three pitches for strikes."
NIU (32-17) got its first hit of the game in the bottom of the second inning after Vaisvila retired the first six Western Michigan batters he faced.
Gavin Baldwin (Nashville, Ill./SEMO) led off with a single up the middle.
Vinny Spotofora (Shorewood, Ill./Lake Land College) was then hit by a pitch, followed by a
Marcus Romero (Brighton, Colo./South Mountain College) single that loaded the bases with no outs.
Ivan Dahlberg (Minooka, Ill./Illinois-Springfield) then reached on an error by WMU pitcher Zach Viersinga, which scored both Baldwin and Spotofora to make the score 2-0. After a
Caden Robertson (Magnolia, Texas/Central Oklahoma) groundout advanced the runners,
Charlie Parcell (Des Plaines, Ill./Maine West) drove in Romero from third with a groundout to first base to give the Huskies a 3-0 lead.
Vaisvila struck out the WMU side in order in the top of the third, getting to four strikeouts in the game. The Huskies broke the game open in the bottom of the third with four runs.
Nolan Sandee (Glendale, Wis./Nicolet) reached on a one-out single. Baldwin then hammered a two-run home run over the left field wall to make the score 5-0. Spotofora followed with a walk, getting to third on a Romero single. Romero stole second base which put him in scoring position for Dahlberg who laced a single through the left side of the infield to drive in both runners for a 7-0 lead.
Western Michigan (26-24) got its first and only hit in the game in the top of the fourth on a Tanner Mally single to left field. Vaisvila struck out the next two hitters and got Avery Thielman to hit a groundball back to him on the mound for the final out of the inning.
"To play a college baseball game against a good offensive team and they don't have a ball leave the infield on the fly is a testament to how good Max was tonight and how good he's been all year," Copeland said. "It was as dominant as it gets."
NIU tacked on two runs in the bottom of the inning on a Spotofora RBI double and a wild pitch that scored Baldwin from third, making the score 9-0.
Cole Smith (Dubuque, Iowa/Bradley) landed the run-rule blow in the fifth with a two-run home run that made the score 11-0. Vaisvila walked the leadoff batter in the seventh, but erased him by starting a 1-6-3 double play off the bat of Thielman. The senior finished off the shutout by getting Lucas Rick to groundout to Sandee at shortstop.
"Our ability to hit the ball on the ground and on the barrel, along with our walks and some ball luck, put this game away," said Copeland. "Gavin's home run in the third was huge and Cole put the exclamation point on it."
Baldwin was 3-for-4 in the game with his 13th home run of the season, two RBI and three runs scored. Dahlberg was 1-for-3 with three RBI. Romero was 2-for-4 with two runs scored and a stolen base. Wednesday's win marked the fifth time NIU scored at least 10 runs in a MAC Tournament game. The Huskies are 14-0 this season when scoring in double figures.
"You've got to get into the winner's bracket to have a chance at winning the whole thing," added Copeland. "It's a huge task tomorrow against a really good Miami team."
NIU takes on the top-seeded Miami RedHawks on Thursday, May 21 at 1 p.m. CT. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+.
—NIU—
