The fall season for the NIU baseball team officially began Monday afternoon.

On the field, the Huskie regulars got dirty with their first day of coached practices. In the bullpen behind first base, some forty walk-ons came out to show their stuff to head coach Joe “Spanky” McFarland.

The walk-on tryouts for Monday included pitchers and catchers. Infielders will be tested on Tuesday while outfielders will tryout on Wednesday. The players who went out on Monday will have a second chance to perform Thursday.

Assistant coach Pete Tsotsos feels that spreading the tryouts over a week’s time makes it easier for the coaching staff to make decisions.

“Last year, we had all the tryouts at one time,” said Tsotsos. “All positions were together and the coaches weren’t able to look at everyone very closely. With tryouts spread out like this, it enables us to give every guy an equal look.”

The regulars on the diamond also have reason to tryout, citing the fact that McFarland will have to reduce the expanded fall roster to 25 players for the spring season.

Despite the competition, the Huskies were calm and relaxed for most of the practice, which consisted of light fundamental drills.

Tsotsos was pleased with the way the players worked out and was glad to get them on the field.

“NCAA rules don’t allow us (coaches) to coach the guys until today,” Tsotsos explained. “Last week we did a lot of conditioning and the players worked out on their own. It was good to get out here because the guys are really pumped up about getting down to business.”

One player who is excited about practice is second baseman Tom O’Neill, a transfer from Wisconsin.

“We didn’t do very much today,” said O’Neill. “Most of the team was split up for different reasons. But it’s about time we were able to open it up. I can’t speak for everyone, but I know that I can’t wait for the season to start.”