After falling to Northwestern yesterday in a pitching duel, NIU baseball got the bats out against UIC in Chicago taking down the Flames 11-9.

The Huskies (14-31) wasted no time offensively in this game, jumping on the Flames in the first inning with a three-run home run from Jeff Zimmerman that scored Jamison Wells from third and Alex Jones from first, giving them the lead 3-0.

UIC got a run back in the first when Alex Grunenwald singled to left field, driving in Jon Ryan from second, narrowing the lead to 3-1.

NIU’s Brett Frantini homered to left field in the second inning and in the third inning with Jones on second, Troy White singled to right field to bring the Huskies lead to 5-1.

In the bottom of the fifth, the Flames started to chip away at the Huskies lead when they scored four runs on three hits, drawing the score to 7-4, Huskies.

“I think Eli ran out of gas in the fifth inning and allowed a few runs,” said NIU coach Ed Mathey. “You have to give UIC credit, they hit the ball well and they made the most of their three or four straight hits and they had some gap shots.”

Zimmerman would add his second home run of the game in the seventh, driving in White from second, making the score 9-6.

Zimmerman would finish the game with two home runs and six RBIs on the day.

UIC’s Jacob McNamara hit a two RBI single to right center that drove in Joe Betcher from second and John Coen from first. Then with Grunenwald on third Alex Jurich hit a sac fly to drive in Grunenwald to knot the game up at 9-9.

With the score still dead-locked in the ninth, the Huskies struck. With Connor Duckhorn on second, White singled up the middle scoring Duckhorn to take the lead 10-9.

NIU wasn’t done though and when Alex Klonowski singled to left, White scored from second, giving it some breathing room, 11-9.

In the bottom of the ninth, NIU closer Kyle Glancy entered the game and after surrendering a walk, he retired the next two batters to record his 12th save of the season.

The bats were key for NIU as it recorded 17 total hits in the game.

“I think our hitters for the most part put themselves in better hitter’s counts,” Mathey said. “They were a little bit more patient, but when they did go after the pitche early in the count, they went after the right pitches.”