The NIU baseball team originally had March 26 circled on its calendar; it was to be the day the Huskies would play the Aurora Spartans in their first home game of the year.

The Huskies will still play the Spartans on Tuesday – but at Aurora’s Snell Field. Because the Huskie Diamond isn’t ready to be played on, Huskies’ head coach Joe McFarland decided to push NIU’s home opener to its April 1 game against Chicago State.

“It snowed a couple of weeks ago, and it (Huskie Diamond) had to thaw out,” NIU assistant coach Pete Tsotsos said. “The infield is ready, but the outfield’s not.

“We just figured we’d give it another week. We could play Tuesday, but someone could break an ankle. The field will be in much better shape next week.”

Tsotsos said neither the coaching staff nor the team was disappointed by the cancellation of its initially scheduled home opener. They just hope the weather is as nice as it was during Monday’s intrasquad scrimmage and as it is predicted to be on Tuesday.

“We’re not really disappointed,” Tsotsos said. “I’m sure we’ll play plenty of home games. (Tuesday) is going to be a wonderful day, and we could have had a nice crowd. Hopefully, the weather on April 1 will be the same as (Monday).”

Now, the Huskies will make a short trip east to play the Division III Spartans (6-3). Last year, the Spartans finished in second place in their division’s World Series. But that finish didn’t leave Aurora or its head coach, Jim Schmid, overconfident. They are actually leery of the 0-9 Huskies.

“They’re (Huskies) still Division I, and they’ve played Division I teams,” Schmid said. “We’re the weakest team on their schedule, to date.

“We lost the majority of our firepower (from last year’s team), we lost our three best offensive players. It will be a good test for both teams.”