Baseball (15-25, 9-6 MAC) won its third straight contest Tuesday with an 11-6 win over the University of Illinois at Chicago, giving the team its eighth road victory.

NIU shot ahead early in the game, putting four runs on the board in the first inning on five hits. The Flames returned with a four-run inning of their own, led by a three-run triple from sophomore catcher Rob Calabrese.

The Huskies took an 8-4 lead after scoring three runs in the second and one in the third, capped off by an unearned run. UIC fought back with two runs in the fifth inning, but couldn’t contain the Huskies’ offense, who went on to score another three runs in the eighth to seal the win.

Senior infielder Justin Fletcher led the Huskies, going 3-4 with three RBIs. Junior pitcher Jon Savarise picked up his first win of the season after pitching three innings and allowing four runs.

“Today was a great midweek series win [Tuesday],” said NIU head coach Mike Kunigonis, according to an NIU Athletics news release. “We saw some great things from a lot of guys. [Aaron Rumfield] and [Jordan Ruckman] were fantastic [Tuesday] and definitely took advantage of their opportunities. Offensively, we did great coming out of the gates hot and finishing the game. We need to keep playing well this weekend.”

Despite being 10 games under .500, the Huskies are now second in the MAC West thanks to a 9-6 record since conference play began. They have the fourth-best conference record in the MAC and have played some of their best baseball of the season over the last month and a half.

The Huskies finished 22-33 last season and are on pace to surpass that mark if they can keep pace in the conference. The team still has 14 games left in the regular season, enough to at least come close to ending at .500.

If it can continue its recent strong play, the team can earn a high seed heading into the MAC Tournament, which is set to begin May 25 in Avon, Ohio.