NIU baseball’s offense disappeared in Sunday’s series finale against Central Michigan, losing by a final score of 2-0. 

NO OFFENSE

The Huskies’ offense was held to just three hits in Sunday’s matchup against the Chippewas and only had five total baserunners.. 

CMU’s senior pitcher Keegan Batka was responsible for NIU’s poor offensive showing. The right-hander tossed a complete game shutout of the Huskies and struck out 14 batters. 

The only Huskie batters to collect a hit in the contest were senior infielder Eric Erato, who went 1-for-4, and freshman outfielder Charlie Parcell, who went 2-for-4.

Eight batters for NIU struck out at least once, and three batters struck out multiple times. Senior infielder Jake Nelson had the most strikeouts among the Huskies, striking out four times in four at-bats. 

STRONG BULLPEN OUTING

Despite the loss in the box score for the Huskies, NIU’s bullpen showed out. The Huskies held the Chippewas to two runs on seven hits.

Senior pitcher Dominic Hann started the game for NIU and surrendered the only two runs given up in the game. A rough first inning by Hann gave CMU the lead, and it was never relinquished. The Huskies used five other pitchers in the game and did not allow another run to score. The bullpen only gave up three hits and three walks and struck out five batters. 

Freshman pitcher Alex Day and senior pitcher Ryan Linkletter had the longest outings out of the bullpen for the Huskies. 

Day finished his afternoon with 1.1 innings pitched while allowing one hit, walking two batters and striking out three. Linkletter totaled 1.2 innings pitched, allowed two hits and struck out one batter. 

“Today was a game that we just had to find a way to win,” said NIU baseball head coach Ryan Copeland via NIU Athletics. “We locked up the series yesterday, but you always try to get that last one. We’ve been able to bounce back a lot this season, but we ran into a pitcher who had good stuff today.”

UP NEXT

The Huskies will be back in action at 3:05 p.m. Wednesday against the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee at Franklin Field. Live stats will be available via Stat Broadcast.