Baseball drops two of three against Toledo

By STEVE NITZ

After winning five out of six MAC baseball contests, the NIU baseball team suffered a setback this weekend.

The Huskies (16-19, 9-6 MAC) dropped two of three to Toledo (12-22, 5-7 MAC), the last-place team in the MAC West. The loss was the fifth road loss in the last six contests for NIU.

“It’s a disappointment; we just didn’t get it done,” NIU head coach Ed Mathey said. “It’s not an easy thing going on the road in this league. If you look at all five of those games, we had our chances.”

GAME 1

The Huskies took the series opener 9-5 behind two home runs from first baseman Dave Reynolds. It was Reynolds’ first career multi-homer game. The sophomore went 3-for-5 and had 3 RBIs in the contest.

Trevor Feeney earned the win for the Huskies, throwing 7 2-3 innings while giving up five runs and striking out six. The senior moved into a tie for fifth place on the NIU career strikeout list with the performance.

GAME 2

Adam Holdenrid suffered his second straight tough outing, dropping his record to 3-3. The senior gave up six earned runs in 4 2-3 innings in the 7-5 Huskie loss.

“Adam’s falling behind in the count,” Mathey said. “When he does that, it limits his ability to make some different pitches.”

Jeff Thomas, Bobby Stevens, Tim Kamin and Danny Reed each collected two hits for NIU.

GAME 3

Toledo jumped out to a four-run lead in the fifth inning, which was too much to overcome for NIU. Home runs by Pat Minogue and Jeff Thomas in the seventh cut the deficit to 4-2, but it wasn’t enough, as Toledo held on for the 4-2 victory.

One positive for the Huskies was the outing by Brandon Copp, who made his first MAC start of the season.

The junior went 6 1-3 innings, allowing three earned runs and striking out a career-high 10 in the loss.

“I try to make the best of the opportunity,” Copp said. “I think the game plan was to come out and throw strikes, pound the zone. Getting ahead is huge.”

“Brandon’s been throwing the ball better,” Mathey said. “He did a great job today, he was working ahead for the most part.”