Baseball (19-25, 12-6 MAC) overcame a late six-run deficit to complete a 11-10 comeback win over Valparaiso University on Tuesday, pushing the team’s winning streak to seven games.

The Huskies trailed 7-1 after five innings and were getting virtually no offense until they scored three runs in the sixth to trim the Crusaders’ lead to three runs. Valparaiso shot back with three runs over the next two periods, giving the team a 10-4 lead heading into the ninth inning.

In the final inning, NIU put together a six-hit, seven-run inning including two hits from junior outfielder Jason Gasser and a walk-off single from senior catcher Johnny Zubek. It was the team’s second walk-off win of the season.

The victory gave the Huskies their best winning streak since 1977 when they won 10 consecutive games. They are tied with Ball State University for the lead in the MAC West.

“If you’re going to break a record that has stood for 30 some odd years, you might as well break it with one of the greatest comebacks in school history,” said head coach Mike Kunigonis, according to an NIU Athletics news release. “That was a tremendous comeback, to say the least.

We did not play well for 8.5 innings. We didn’t pitch well, we didn’t play defense very well, and we didn’t hit well, but this group of guys believes. They believe all the time and that trumps everything else, and we proved that today.”

NIU’s impressive turnaround comes after the team got off to a tumultuous start to the year — the team was 6-19 through 25 games, but has gone 13-6 since and has an opportunity to take over the division with 10 games remaining.