Despite the frigid temperatures across DeKalb County, baseball season finally kicks off today for NIU.

The Huskies open their season at the BankFirst Baseball Challenge at Mississippi State and must be ready to hit the ground running with a double-header out the gate.

NIU faces North Florida today at 1 p.m. and squares off with MSU at 5 p.m. The Huskies meet the host Bulldogs again Saturday at 12:30 p.m. and wrap up the weekend with a 12:30 p.m. matchup with UNF Sunday.

UNF finished fourth in the Atlantic Sun Conference with a 29-26, 18-15 record. The Ospreys are in their third season as a Division I team and are coached by Dusty Rhodes, an American Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame inductee.

“North Florida is a team that is relatively young in Division I, but they play at a pretty high level,” said NIU head coach Ed Mathey. “They’re returning a couple of front-line pitchers and veteran hitters.”

MSU ended 2008 with a 23-33, 9-21 record, good for 12 in the SEC.

“They have a new coach who was at nationally-ranked Kentucky,” Mathey said. “They have one of the great venues of all college baseball where there’s a good chance we could see up to 6,000 people. They’re very excited about baseball down there in a very challenging conference.”

This weekend will be the first opportunity for NIU coaches to get an accurate look at how the team will perform in game situations. The Huskies have been practicing inside since the fall and have yet to get the full experience on the field. Senior Brandon Copp will toe the rubber for game one and Andy Deain will also see some action on the mound, Mathey said.

“It’s going to be great to get out and get started with this group,” Mathey said. “We need to see how they’re going to move and react come game-time.”

This year’s team is loaded with new talent, and Mathey says it will take a while to get adjusted. Six position players and seven pitchers return from last season, but nine freshmen are making the trip south.

“This is a different look than teams in the past,” Mathey said. “One-third of our traveling roster are freshmen. We have a lot of new guys with a lot of new roles. How they adjust and how quickly they adjust is going to be key for us.”