NIU baseball is set to begin its season with a new look team, entering the second year of the Ryan Copeland era.
In Copeland’s first year at the helm, the Huskies finished with a record of 21-33, winning 11 more games than 2023.
NIU’s 2024 roster was full of seniors, with 18 of the 39 man roster graduating at season’s end. Copeland brought in 23 new players this offseason, getting players from high school, junior college and NCAA levels.
“We knew coming in last fall we were very senior dominant,” Copeland said. “We knew we were going to lose a lot of guys, so we were pretty aggressive in recruiting early. We brought in nine different freshmen, we ended up signing seven junior college guys and the rest were summer adds via the transfer portal. So, what we did is we wanted to go get the best available players and then once the portal opened in June, we were able to assess our needs better.”
Some notable returners from the 2024 season are sophomore catcher Cooper Cohn, sophomore outfielder Charlie Parcell, redshirt junior pitcher Adam Brouwer and sophomore pitcher Ty Brachbill.
Cohn and Parcell were both key members of the starting lineup last season as freshmen, both appearing in at least 40 games.
Parcel hit .277 last season in 52 games with 3 homeruns and 25 runs batted in, while stealing 6 bases. Cohn hit .250 last season in 40 games with 5 homeruns and 19 runs batted in.
The two sophomores now carry more responsibility, as two players with starting experience on a team with several transfers and freshmen.
“We are always trying to encourage our guys to lead and to speak up and try to get guys pulling from the same side of the rope,” Copeland said. “So Charlie (Parcel) and Coop (Cohn) are the guys that got a lot of playing time last year as freshmen, so they have some credibility to their names.”
Brouwer and Brachbill were the two aces of the Huskies’ pitching staff last year, both serving in their first seasons at NIU.
Brouwer was a transfer from the University of Illinois-Springfield who came to NIU after Copeland left Illinois-Springfield to coach the Huskies.
In 14 starts, Brouwer amassed a record of 7-5, totaling 73.1 innings pitched while striking out 55 batters and an earned run average of 6.14. Brouwer was also named to the All-MAC Second Team after the season.
Brachbill was another freshman that made an impact in his first collegiate season with NIU.
The young right hander appeared in 15 games last season, starting in 14 with an ERA of 7.75, leading the team with 74.1 innings pitched and 59 strikeouts.
Brachbill delivered a signature performance last season against Central Michigan University, throwing a complete game where he only surrendered one unearned run in a 2-1 Huskie victory.
“Both of them had really good falls and they’ve had a great preseason here with us,” Copeland said. “Both of them have seen an uptick in velocity as well. Adam (Brouwer) has always been able to pitch, he was really solid for us and Ty (Brachbill) came to us last year and he did a good job for us most of the time on Friday nights and gave us good looks.”
The Huskies added additional pitching in the offseason, with redshirt senior pitcher Chad Saner transferring to NIU after spending the previous season pitching for Creighton University.
Prior to his time at Creighton, Saner also spent four years pitching at Illinois Springfield for Copeland. In his time at Illinois Springfield, Saner earned First Team All-Region and All-GLVC honors and also threw the second no-hitter in Illinois Springfield history in 2021.
“I think one of the big jumps we made was the pitching,” Cohn said. “We have a lot of guys coming in that are sitting above 90 mph with good fastball slider mixes. There’s a lot that looks good this year.”
Another notable transfer is junior catcher Logan Gregorio, who transferred from Benedictine University at the D3 level.
Gregorio had a noteworthy two year career at Benedictine, as he was named Fourth Team All-American at catcher by d3baseball.com. Gregorio was a key player at Benedictine, helping the Ravens win the D3 National Championship last season.
The slugging lefty hit .365 last season with 10 homeruns and 53 RBIs.
“We added some good hitters, some good lefty bats,” Parcel said. “Lefty bats was the thing that we really needed, and we have a ton of new lefty hitters. It felt like I was the only one we had, along with Eric (Erato) last year. I feel like we have a more well rounded lineup.”
The Huskies will open their season against Nicholls State University at 6:30 p.m. Friday in Thibodaux, Louisiana. Live stats for the game will be available on SIDEARM Stats.
