DeKALB, IL – The Northern Illinois University baseball team scored 10 unanswered runs on Saturday afternoon to defeat the Ball State Cardinals 11-1 in eight innings at Ralph McKinzie Field at Walt & Janice Owens Park, securing the Huskies' sixth straight win and eighth consecutive series win.
"It was a super-offensive day and we were all over the barrel," said head coach
Ryan Copeland. "For us to only allow the one run and three walks on a day like today where you're trying to minimize base runners when any ball hit in the air could go out, it was a great job by Carter [Cox]. It was a great effort and another series win but we have to finish this thing off tomorrow."
NIU's (31-13, 21-8 MAC) win, combined with Miami's win and Kent State's loss, moved the Huskies into a three-way tie with the RedHawks and Golden Flashes for first place in the Mid-American Conference with four league games remaining.
The Huskies took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second on a two-out RBI single by
Wyatt Wawro (Darien, Ill./Downers Grove South). Ball State (21-28, 14-15 MAC) responded in the top of the fourth with a Brady Davidson two-out run-scoring single to tie the game 1-1.
NIU took back the lead in the bottom of the fourth, and in quick fashion.
Gavin Baldwin (Nashville, Ill./SEMO) and
Ivan Dahlberg (Minooka, Ill./Illinois-Springfield) led off with back-to-back home runs to give the Huskies a 3-1 lead.
Carter Cox (St. Peters, Mo./Fort Zumwalt South) retired six of the next eight batters he faced to keep NIU in front. The Huskies tacked on a run in the bottom of the fifth on a Baldwin double that scored
Nolan Sandee (Glendale, Wis./Nicolet) from first base to take a 4-1 lead. NIU came alive for three runs in the sixth, highlighted by a
Vinny Spotofora (Shorewood, Ill./Lake Land College) two-run triple, to extend the lead to 7-1.
"Baseball, and especially college baseball, is a game of momentum," Copeland said. "Ball State got a big two-out hit in the fourth. We responded with the back-to-back home runs, something we haven't done all year. I loved the relentlessness of our offense from there. We kept adding on and adding on. If you look at Ball State's results, they've come back late in a lot of games so you have to find a way to put teams like that away."
Cox went six innings to earn his sixth win of the year, allowing one run on five hits with five strikeouts.
Cooper Cohn (McHenry, Ill./McHenry) entered the game in the top of the seventh and struck out the Ball State side. NIU put another three runs on the board in the bottom of the inning as two-out RBI singles from Spotofora,
Caden Robertson and
Marcus Romero (Brighton, Colo./South Mountain College) made the score 10-1. NIU put the game away in the bottom of the eighth with a Wawro single scoring Baldwin from third for the 11-1 win.
The Huskies' 17 hits on Saturday were one shy of their season-high of 18 set at Ohio on March 7 and against Miami on March 20. All nine hitters in the NIU lineup had a hit in the game. Wawro and Spotofora both had three hits in the game and combined for five RBI. Baldwin was 2-for-4 with two RBI, giving him four home runs and eight RBI in the last five games.
"This is completely different from last year," Baldwin said after NIU's sixth straight win and move into a tie for first in the MAC. "At the end of last year we were trying to play spoiler, and now it's happening to us. It's nice to be playing for the regular season title and already heading to the conference tournament."
NIU will honor it's 12 seniors –
Gavin Baldwin (Nashville, Ill./SEMO),
Will Couchman (Edina, Minn./NIACC),
Ivan Dahlberg (Minooka, Ill./Illinois-Springfield),
Tyler Deleskiewicz (Genoa City, Wis./Milwaukee),
Blake Gaskey (Davenport, Iowa/Ohio),
John Lyman (Minneapolis, Minn./NIACC),
Tommy Meyer (Wauwatosa, Wis./Wauwatosa East),
Gavin Micklinghoff (McHenry, Ill./McHenry County College),
Caden Robertson (Magnolia, Texas/Central Oklahoma),
Cole Smith (Dubuque, Iowa/Bradley),
Matt Tarr (North Aurora, Ill./Purdue) and
Max Vaisvila (Villa Park, Ill./Wabash Valley College) – for Senior Day on Sunday, May 10th. The Senior Day ceremony will take place at 12:30 p.m. prior to the 1 p.m. first pitch. Following Sunday's game, NIU Athletics will hold a special Commencement ceremony for its seniors who missed the university's commencement this weekend.
--NIU--
