Baseball | July 6

DeKALB, IL – Former Northern Illinois University baseball student-athletes Cole Smith and Ivan Dahlberg have recently signed professional contracts with clubs in the independent Frontier League.
 
Smith joined the Schaumburg Boomers on July 1 and had a hit in his debut. He is 6-for-13 in his first five games with two doubles, three runs batted in and four walks. Smith led the Huskies in 2025 with a .357 batting average, a .583 slugging percentage and 19 doubles. A Second Team All-Mid-American Conference selection, Smith hit .412 in the MAC Tournament with two home runs and nine RBI to earn a place on the All-Tournament Team as NIU won it's first MAC title. He was a College Sports Communicators Academic All-District and Second Team Academic All-America honoree. Smith is the first NIU baseball player since 1996 to be an Academic All-American.
 
Dahlberg signed with the Joliet Slammers on July 3. The catcher went 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI as Joliet defeated Evansville 8-5. Dahlberg hit .220 in 53 games in 2025 with nine doubles, eight home runs and 29 RBI. He led NIU with 50 walks, becoming just the second Huskie in program history to have at least 50 base on balls in a season. Dahlberg finished his collegiate career 10^th among all active NCAA baseball players with 157 walks between NIU and Illinois-Springfield.
 
The 2026 NIU Huskies won a program-record 36 games and won their first MAC Championship. NIU appeared in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1972, earning the #3 seed for the Tallahassee Regional. The Huskies won their first NCAA Tournament game with a 12-10 victory over Coastal Carolina.
 
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