Baseball | June 9

DeKALB, IL – Senior Pitcher Max Vaisvila (Villa Park, Ill./Wabash Valley College) of the Mid-American Champion Northern Illinois University baseball team was named to the Midwest All-Region First Team by the American Baseball Coaches Association and Rawlings on Tuesday.
 
Vaisvila went 8-0 this season with 3.09 earned run average, becoming the first NIU pitcher to have eight wins in a season since 1977. He is one of 10 pitchers in Division I to have at least eight wins and no losses in 2026. Vaisvila had 87 strikeouts in 85.2 innings with five starts of at least eight strikeouts. An All-MAC First Team honoree, Vaisvila finished the season in the top-five of the MAC in complete games, ERA, WHIP and strikeouts.
 
"Max is incredibly deserving of being named First Team All-Region," said head coach Ryan Copeland. "His development over the past 12 months is remarkable. I'm so proud of his resilience, toughness and commitment to becoming the best version of himself. We would not have accomplished what we did this season without Max taking the ball every Friday."
 
He is the first NIU pitcher since Alex Klonowski in 2014 to have multiple shutouts in the same season. Vaisvila had 14 strikeouts, the second-most in a single game in NIU history, on March 28 in a one-hit complete-game shutout of Bowling Green which earned him MAC Co-Pitcher and National Pitcher of the Week honors. His second shutout came in the MAC Tournament on May 20 when he held Western Michigan to one hit with 10 strikeouts in an 11-0 win. Vaisvila was the MAC Tournament Most Valuable Player.
 
This is the second consecutive season the Huskies have had an All-Region selection after Logan Gregorio was placed on the Second Team in 2025. Vaisvila is the first NIU baseball player to earn All-Region First Team honors since Kam Smith in 2021, and the first All-Region First Team Pitcher since Matt German in 2006 and 2007.
 
 NIU won a single-season program record 36 games in 2026 along with its first MAC baseball championship. The Huskies reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1972 and defeated Coastal Carolina 12-10 on May 29^th for their first NCAA win in program history.
 
--NIU--