DeKALB – Senior outfielder/catcher Colin Summerhill etched his name in NIU history with his 16th home run of the season as NIU baseball dropped the series opener to Kent State 7-3.

RECORD BREAKER

Summerhill broke the NIU single-season home run record in style with a moonshot to lead off the seventh inning that hit off the facade of NIU football’s Huskie Stadium. 

The power-hitting catcher broke Mike Santoro’s 20-year-old record of 15 home runs in a season. 

Summerhill has been red hot as of late, homering in each of the last five games with a total of seven home runs and 13 RBIs over that span. 

“I wish it was in a more dramatic fashion than being down seven, seventh inning,” Summerhill said. “Obviously it’s something I’ve been looking forward to it all week, getting an opportunity to break the record and I’ve got it done now, but at the same time we got to play better.”

STRUGGLING STARTING PITCHING

Freshman pitcher Ty Brachbill started his 10th game of the season, going 5.1 innings and giving up all seven runs scored by the Golden Flashes. 

The young right-hander was bit by the long ball in Friday’s contest, as Kent State jumped him for three home runs in the game. 

Brachbill now sits at a win/loss record of 3-5 and the Huskies have now lost six straight games in which Brachbill has started. 

BULLPEN SHUTOUT

Following the departure of Brachbill midway through the top of the sixth inning, redshirt senior pitcher Reagan Klawiter entered the ballgame. 

Klawiter tallied the longest outing of his season so far, going 2.1 innings while striking out two batters and allowing zero runs. 

Freshman pitcher Parker Schuring tallied his fifth appearance of the season for the Huskies and worked a season high 1.1 innings of scoreless baseball. 

“Reagan’s (Klawiter) been our guy from the left side, this was probably the best he has thrown the ball,” said  NIU baseball head coach Ryan Copeland. “Given the conditions, Reagan has been awesome and Parker (Schuring) hasn’t had a whole lot of opportunities, but he entered the game down 7-1 and did a great job to give us a chance.”

SLUGGISH OFFENSE

Kent State’s redshirt junior pitcher Calvin Bickerstaff shut down NIU’s offense, as he worked seven innings of one-run ball. 

The Huskies offense was held to just three hits through the first six innings of the ballgame.

Summerhill’s seventh-inning home run opened the scoring for the Huskies, and they followed up by plating two more runs in the eighth inning. 

Three  Huskies had multi-hit games. Freshman outfielder Charlie Parcell, freshman catcher Cooper Cohn and senior infielder Jake Nelson all recorded at least two hits.

Nelson finished the day out of the leadoff spot going 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored. 

“I think the message needs to be that we need to be more gentle with our approach,” Copeland said. “Playing at home for the fourth time, a conference game, we are playing for our lives to stay in the mix for the conference tournament.”

UP NEXT

The Huskies will continue their series against Kent State at 2 p.m. Saturday at Ralph McKinzie Field at Walt and Janice Owens Park. The game will be streamed at NIU All-Access and live stats will be available via SIDEARM Stats.