Baseball optimistic for improvement in upcoming series

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Junior third baseman Carl Russell waits for a chance to field a ball April 8, 2014. 

By Christopher Loggins

Baseball (4-16) will have an opportunity to improve on its 3-11 road record as it takes on Ohio University (9-11) in a three-game series this weekend.

The Huskies saw their two-game winning streak come to an end when they took a 5-2 loss to Southern Illinois University on Sunday. The streak was the longest the team has had all season — it has gone on losing streaks of at least four games on three occasions already.

Ohio is coming off of an 8-5 loss to Youngstown State University on Tuesday and is currently third place in the MAC East. NIU is still fourth in the MAC West despite its disappointing record, but is less than a game from falling to last place.

“Today was a disappointing end to an otherwise successful weekend,” said head coach Mike Kunigonis following the Huskies’ loss to SIU on Sunday, according to an NIU Athletics news release. “We had an opportunity to score a lot of runs in the first but didn’t take advantage of it. The consequence of our action was allowing their starter to settle in and gain confidence. We didn’t have a better opportunity to score the rest of the game … Games aren’t won and lost from the first pitch. We were unable to overcome the slow start. We will get back at it this week in practice and prepare for conference play next weekend.”

The two teams have not met since they played a three-game series in the 2012-13 season — the Huskies won two of the three games, scoring at least 10 runs in two of them. Ohio won the previous series in the 2011-12 campaign, winning all three games and outscoring NIU 35-13.

The Huskies will have a chance to erase their past woes in conference play. They went 10-17 last season and haven’t finished with a winning MAC record since 2012-13 when they went 16-11.

The first game of the weekend is set to start at 5 p.m. Friday in Athens, Ohio.