NIU baseball was unable to take advantage of its home field as it was swept in three games by Toledo over the weekend.

Toledo (20-20, 9-6 MAC) won in a variety of fashions over the three game series against NIU (11-27, 5-10 MAC). In game one, Toledo came from behind down 3-2, to score five runs in the last two innings to pick up a 7-3 victory.

In the second tilt, Toledo was up from the beginning, including up by 5-0 after six innings. NIU’s bullpen would go on to pitch three innings without a score or a hit. The offense, however, only managed to scrape one run together, as the contest ended 5-1.

In the third and final game of the series, Toledo was able to make good on a tenth inning run to win the contest 4-3.

“I think we thew the ball well enough all series to pull out a game or two,” said NIU coach Ed Mathey. “Our hitting is sporadic right now. One, we’re not getting enough guys into scoring position, and two, when we do, we need to get them in.”

Redshirt senior pitcher Tony Manville threw 112 pitches over eight innings, allowing three runs and striking out five for NIU.

The Huskies offense wasn’t able to make it a winning effort for Manville, as they had their chance with the bases loaded in the ninth with one out, but failed to get a run across.

“I was just trying to throw strikes and let my team work for me,” Manville said. “Today, we had some chances, and we didn’t take advantage of them as a team.”

Mathey said the offense will be key if NIU wishes to remain in the playoff hunt.

“Our team has shown what it’s capable of doing when it’s swinging the bat,” Mathey said. “I’ve told the team there’s still a lot of water to go under this bridge for the Mid-American Conference. There’s still four weekends left, so that’s 12 possible wins.”