NIU baseball (9-17, 1-8 MAC) fell short to the Butler University Bulldogs (10-17) in Sunday’s game by a score of 15-10.
NIU senior outfielder Gavin Baldwin started the day’s scoring in the first inning by flying out to center field and bringing home an RBI on a sacrifice fly. Junior infielder Ben Loyd followed suit with another sacrifice flyout. Sophomore catcher Cooper Cohn then walked in a run in a bases loaded situation, making the score 3-0.
To kick off the bottom of the first inning, Butler junior pitcher/infielder Jack Bello put 2 runs on the board after hitting a home run to right field. Then, Bulldog sophomore outfielder/first baseman Tommy Townsend followed with a solo home run, tying the game at 3-3.
NIU junior catcher Logan Gregorio answered back in the second inning with a homer to right field. Baldwin joined in and hit a home run to center field. Cohn continued by walking in another run, allowing the Huskies to pull ahead with a 6-3 lead.
Butler sophomore outfielder Ryan Drumm responded in the bottom of the second inning with a towering three-run homer to left field to tie it for the Bulldogs. Butler senior catcher Zach Munton gave the Bulldogs the lead in the third inning, singling through the right side in the third to bring home an RBI.
Bello then singled to score another in the fourth inning before freshman infielder Harry Carr hit a sacrifice flyout to score another and allow Butler to pull ahead with a three-point lead.
Gregorio responded, hitting another 2-run home run to bring Butler’s lead down to 1.
The Huskies’ defense struggled in the fifth inning, in which the Bulldogs would score 5 runs, headlined by a triple by Drumm.
NIU attempted to come back in the eighth inning with an RBI single from Loyd, and an RBI double from senior outfielder JP Gauthier to cut the lead to 10-14, but the Huskies could not complete the comeback.
Redshirt senior pitcher Chad Saner made the start for NIU today and got shelled in his start, giving up 5 hits and 6 runs in only an inning of work. He was relieved by sophomore pitcher Parker Schuring, who gave up 1 run in two innings and received the loss in today’s game. Junior pitcher Clayton Taylor also got the ball for an inning and let up 2 runs.
Combined, all six pitchers would put up a combined stat line of 17 hits, 14 earned runs, 6 walks, and 8 strikeouts.
UP NEXT
The Huskies will take on the Purdue University Boilermakers, with the game starting at 5 p.m. Wednesday in West Lafayette, Indiana.
