NIU baseball (29-13, 19-8 MAC) secured its second series sweep of the season in its 8-2 victory over Central Michigan University (19-27, 9-18 MAC) on Sunday.
After completing its fourth-consecutive victory, NIU has now punched its ticket to the Mid-American Conference tournament, the program’s first postseason appearance since 2019.
The Huskies also now sit in second place in the MAC after overtaking Miami (OH) in the standings, now trailing just Kent State.
“We just have to try and keep pace with Miami and Kent, and possibly win the MAC in the regular season,” said NIU baseball head coach Ryan Copeland. “So, not a whole lot of margin for error right now. We’ll just keep doing what we can to win the games in front of us. I think they’re really competitive teams, they’re great programs.”
NIU’s victory over CMU on Sunday also secured NIU’s first road sweep since the 2017 season.
Sophomore pitcher Carter Cox started the finale for the Huskies and impressed with eight solid innings of work, allowing just two runs on the day.
“Carter pitched his tail off and pitched out of some jams early and gave us a really good chance,” Copeland said. “And then tremendous defense again.”
The sophomore southpaw has lowered his ERA on the season from 9.36 on March 29 to 5.58 after his eight inning performance against the Chippewas.
During Cox’s final inning of work, with senior pitcher Matt Tarr ready to enter the game, Cox and Copeland conversed on the mound with Cox eventually staying in the game and recording the final out of the eighth inning and ending his day.
“I wanted to give him an opportunity to talk me out of going to the bullpen,” Copeland said. “We had Matt Tarr ready to go there for the right handed batter, but Carter said he wanted the hitter. And he made a really good pitch and finished it out.”
Tarr followed Cox out of the bullpen, pitching the ninth inning and allowing no runs on one hit while striking out one Chippewa.
NIU’s offense was on full display this weekend, putting up 30 runs over the three-game set with an eight-run performance in the finale.
Graduate student first baseman/outfielder Gavin Baldwin slugged his 10th home run of the season in the second inning. Baldwin hit a home run in each of the three games this weekend.
The slugging first baseman now has 25 home runs in his two seasons in DeKalb, which is tied for fourth on NIU’s all time home run list.
Freshman outfielder Wyatt Wawro picked up another multi-hit performance, his ninth consecutive game with multiple hits. During this stretch, Wawro has gone 22-for-38 which is a blistering .579 batting average.
Wawro went 2-for-3 with two walks and scored one run, raising his season average to .391, good for sixth in the MAC. Wawro also holds the fourth best on base percentage in the conference at .520.
Junior outfielder Marcus Romero added two hits to his ledger while scoring two runs in the contest. The outfielder also stole his 20th bag of the season in 21 attempts.
Romero ranks eighth in the conference in stolen bases despite only playing in 35 games so far this season.
“We’re trying to set standards and have a chance to go play in the postseason,” Copeland said. “Once you’re in the tournament, you have a chance and you know it’s going to be a fun experience for your guys. They just believe right now. They find ways to win all different types of games and we keep playing good baseball so I really like our chances going into the conference tournament.”
UP NEXT
NIU baseball will return home at 3 p.m. Friday against Ball State for its final series at Ralph McKinzie Field at Walt and Janice Owens Park. The game will be live streamed on NIU Athletic’s YouTube and live stats will be available via SIDEARM Sports.
