DeKALB — The baseball team was swept in a three-game series this weekend by the Ball State University Cardinals.

The Cardinals got walk-off wins in two games of the series but blew out the Huskies Saturday with a score of 11-0.

“We were legitimately two plays away from winning the weekend and walking out of here 2-1,” said Head Coach Mike Kunigonis. “We were one play away from winning on Friday, and they walked us off in extra innings. We were one play away again [Sunday], and they walked us off in the bottom of the ninth.”

NIU has now dropped eight consecutive road games following the sweep.

Friday — Cardinals 3, Huskies 2

The Huskies opened scoring in the second inning by executing a double steal. Freshman infielder Alex Rodriguez swiped second base, which allowed senior outfielder Scooter Bynum to steal home. Redshirt junior outfielder Hunter Bross tripled to drive in Rodriguez.

“That [double steal] was a play we wanted to make,” Kunigonis said. “The delayed steal with [Rodriguez] caught them off guard. I think they were ready for everything but the delayed steal, and it ended up working out for us.”

Ball State answered in the bottom of the third inning with a two-run home run.

Junior starting pitcher Tanner Foster was on the mound Friday for NIU. He worked eight innings, allowing only the third inning home run while striking out eight batters.

The game went to extra innings with the teams deadlocked 2-2.

Sophomore pitcher Nate Thomas worked two and two-thirds innings in relief of Foster before giving up the walk-off single in the bottom of the eleventh inning.

Saturday — Cardinals 11, Huskies 0

Freshman starting pitcher Michael Lasiewicz had his roughest outing of the season Saturday. He gave up five runs in six innings of work, though three of the runs were unearned.

“I know the numbers don’t look good when you look at it,” Kunigonis said. “If he’s going to have a bad outing where he goes six innings and only gives up two earned runs, we’ll take that any day of the week.”

NIU’s bullpen did not fare better as senior pitcher Andrew Hoffmann and freshman pitcher Mike Fuentes combined to allow six runs in two innings.

The Huskies could not match Ball State’s productivity at the plate and only managed two hits and no runs over the course of the game. The defense was not particularly sharp either, making four errors in the game.

Sunday — Cardinals 5, Huskies 4

Freshman outfielder Kam Smith got NIU on the board early in game three by knocking in senior infielder Brad Wood with an RBI sacrifice fly.

The Cardinals had one-run innings in the second, third, fourth and eighth innings to take a 4-1 lead into the ninth.

The game heated up in the ninth inning due to a three-run rally by the Huskies to tie the game. Ball State loaded the bases and walked in a run, making the score 4-2.

After a pitching change, Wood came through in the clutch with a two RBI single to tie the game at four. Senior infielder Samuel Vega was thrown out at home on the Wood’s single to end the top half of the inning.

In the bottom half of the inning, the Cardinals got a walk-off solo homerun to win the game.

Junior pitcher William Anderson started the game for NIU. Anderson went five innings, allowing two earned runs and striking out four batters.

“Will has started for us the past two weekends,” Kunigonis said. “Will did a great job for us in his opportunity last week. He pitched very well [Sunday.] He battled out of some tough spots and that’s a testament to him. He kept us in that game.”

The Huskies are back in action 3 p.m. Tuesday at Ralph McKinzie Field to take on the Valparaiso University Crusaders.

“I think we’re playing a lot better,” Kunigonis said. “Our energy has been really good. We’re battling and fighting, but for whatever reason the ball has not been bouncing our way right now.”