NIU baseball (1-2) finished its weekend series against Nicholls State University (2-1) with a 21-2 slaughter for their first win of the season.
The Huskies offense provided a breakout performance with its 21 run, 12 hit performance Sunday.
A 12 run eighth inning helped put the game out of reach for Nicholls, with 17 Huskies coming up to bat in the inning.
“We challenged our guys that we have to be a lot better than we were yesterday (Saturday),” said NIU baseball head coach Ryan Copeland. “This was a big test for us so to come out and jump on them early, it was just a really good bounce back against a really good program.”
Sophomore outfielder Charlie Parcell was one of many Huskies that came up to hit two times in the long inning, totaling a double, a walk and a run scored.
NIU slugged four home runs during the game, their first long balls of the season, including two grand slams.
Senior outfielder Gavin Baldwin provided the Huskies with a lead before they had even taken the field, hitting a grand slam in the top of the first inning.
Freshman infielder Nolan Sandee provided some power for the Huskies off the bench, totaling 6 runs batted in just two at-bats including a pinch-hit grand slam during the Huskies 12 run eighth inning.
“Nolan (Sandee) was someone we were pretty high on in the recruiting process,” Copeland said. “He got into the game and we thought he looked good. We know he is not afraid, he got a good pitch to hit and he didn’t miss it, and I’m pretty sure he leads our team in RBIs in just three at-bats.”
Junior catcher Logan Gregorio was another Huskie that hit his first home run with NIU, going 2-for-4 with 3 RBIs, 2 walks and 3 runs scored.
“We are going to count on Logan (Gregorio) as a guy we can count on in the middle of our order,” Copeland said. “He’s a guy that had a ton of success at the Division 3 level and he’s a physical, dangerous bat.”
Parcell was another Huskie who hit their first homerun of the season in Sunday’s rout of Nicholls, hitting a solo home run in the second inning. Parcell reached base three times in the win, and scored 3 runs, now leading the team with 5 runs scored so far this season.
Junior pitcher Max Vaisvila made his first start for NIU, and was provided with an early lead. Vaisvila totaled 5.2 innings pitched, giving up zero runs on 7 hits while striking out 7 batters and earning his first win at NIU.
“Max (Vaisvila) was one of our better arms the entire fall and winter,” Copeland said. “He did a great job of keeping the ball balanced, he also gave up a lot of hits but that’s because he throws so many strikes and he was able to pitch into the sixth inning which was exactly what we needed.”
Some other notable offensive performances came from senior infielder/outfielder Andrew Smart and senior outfielder C.J. Cepicky.
Smart reached base in all five of his plate appearances on Sunday, going 2-for-2 with 3 walks and 3 runs scored.
Cepicky went 2-for-6 out of the second spot in the order, scoring 2 runs and driving in 1.
The Huskies’ next game will be 3 p.m. Friday against Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Live stats for the game will be available on Stat Broadcast.
