The more things change, the more they … well, you know the rest of that axiom, and by now, so must the NIU baseball team.

As days become weeks, the Huskies’ dubious, season-long winless streak continues to grow and rankle. Last weekend, the Huskies lost three games at Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, thus sinking their record to 0-14.

NIU’s first loss was a Friday afternoon 9-0 setback. The teams then played a Saturday doubleheader in which NIU lost 4-1 and 21-0, respectively.

“They (SIU-E) are a predominantly senior ball club, and we are a freshman team,” NIU head coach Joe “Spanky” McFarland said. “Their experience showed. They’re ranked seventh in Division II, and they’ve played in the College World Series a couple of times.”

In Friday’s game, the Huskies found themselves down big after only two innings. After permitting two runs to score in the first inning, losing pitcher Josh Brown (0-3) allowed six runs in the second. For the afternoon, Brown gave up nine runs, with five being earned.

“They (SIU-E) execute their offense well,” Brown said. “They got us down by two early, (but) they didn’t hit the ball hard. They get infield singles, sacrifice flies and steals. And then they manufacture runs on ground outs and infield hits.”

NIU actually led in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader. The Huskies held a 1-0 lead after the first two innings, when in the third, SIU-E scored two runs off of eventual loser, starter Mike Young (0-4). After three innings of work, Young was relieved by Jim Gurney, who pitched the rest of the game.

The Huskies could only garner three hits in the first game of their doubleheader, two of them by catcher Chris Kvitek, and eight for the entire weekend.

“We really weren’t hitting the breaking ball, and we really weren’t hitting to the opposite field,” first baseman Paul Schimbke said.

“We weren’t aggressive,” outfielder John Johnson said. “We took a lot of called strikes. When we got behind in the count, we couldn’t hit the breaking ball.”

The last game of the trip was a forgettable one for NIU. Included in SIU-E’s 21-0 trouncing of the Huskies were devastating run splurges. The Cougars scored nine runs in the first inning, five in the second, four in the third and three in the fourth.

Losing for the Huskies was starter Brent Horlock (0-4), who pitched only 1/3 of an inning. The Huskies finished the game with just two hits, while SIU-E matched its 21 runs outburst with 21 hits.