Twelve innings of back-and-forth scoring between NIU baseball (11-18, 2-9 MAC) and the Ohio University Bobcats (8-21, 4-10 MAC) came down to senior outfielder Gavin Baldwin.
This was the second at bat in extra innings for Baldwin, and the second time his out ended the inning. His 10th inning strikeout stranded two, while his foul out in the 12th ended a 17-16 loss for the Huskies.
“That’s not a very good baseball game,” said NIU baseball head coach Ryan Copeland. “We played lousy defense, we didn’t execute, after being so good on the mound in the last couple of days, we were equally as bad today. It’s just unacceptable and really disappointing.”
NIU’s pitching struggled early, with junior starting pitcher Max Vaisvila giving up a grand slam to the Bobcats in the third inning. In the top of the fourth, Ohio earned three more to lead the Huskies 7-0.
Vaisvila pitched four innings for the Huskies, conceding 7 earned runs on 9 hits.
A series of base hits brought the Huskies within two by the bottom of the seventh inning, when the offense exploded to put NIU ahead for the first time.
Sophomore catcher Cooper Cohn sent a long ball over the center field wall to bring home junior infielder Ben Loyd, leveling the score at 9-9.
NIU’s home run leaders in junior catcher Logan Gregorio and Baldwin went back-to-back to put the Huskies ahead 11-9, with Gregorio hitting a home run to left field and Baldwin hitting an inside the park home run.
The slugging duo sits at three and four in Mid-American Conference home run standings, with 12 for Gregorio and 11 for Baldwin.
“They believe in themselves right now,” Copeland said. “They’re confident, they’re having good at-bats. It was an offensive day today, and those guys are really good about putting the ball on the barrel, especially up in the air.”
Ohio took back those runs in the eighth, leaving the score locked at 11-11 through nine innings.
Bobcats senior outfielder Ben Slanker snatched back the lead for Ohio in the top of the tenth inning, hitting a 2 RBI home run for his second long ball of the day.
Gregorio brought home senior outfielder CJ Cepicky and Cohn on a single in the tenth inning, leveling the score once again. Gregorio leads the Huskies in RBIs with 40, also placing him third in the conference.
The Bobcats scored four in the 12th inning, two of which were unearned off an error from NIU freshman infielder Nolan Sandee.
Despite a three-run bomb from sophomore outfielder Charlie Parcell in the bottom of the twelfth to bring the Huskies within one, the game ended 17-16 victory for Ohio.
Sophomore pitcher Ty Brachbill earned the loss for the Huskies, giving up 8 runs, two of which were unearned, while striking out five in 4.2 innings of work out of the bullpen.
“If you would have told me that we were going to put up 16 runs today, I would have liked our chances,” said Copeland. “We had a couple of chances offensively late, where we put up a zero and where we couldn’t get the big hit with guys we believe in. Every run matters. Very poor execution on our end did us in, and we fought, we competed our tails off, but that doesn’t always get you wins. We have got to be better and we just have to play better baseball.”
UP NEXT
The Huskies look to clinch a series win against Ohio University at 1 p.m. Sunday at Ralph McKinzie Field at Walt and Janice Owens Park in DeKalb. The game will be streamed on NIU All-Access and live stats will be available on SideArm Stats.
