DeKALB | Freshman Kate Greenough earned her second MAC West Pitcher of the Week award of the season. The Portland, Ore., native appeared in three of four games over the weekend and went 2-0 with a 1.10 ERA. She pitched 16.1 innings, allowed two earned runs on 10 hits and struck out five batters.

Greenough currently has an overall ERA of 3.15 and has pitched in 162.2 innings so far this season.

Call it a case of bad luck or call it missed opportunities. But whatever it may be, the NIU baseball team has lost back-to-back series for the first time all year. However, these losses came against the top two teams in not only the MAC West, but the entire conference.

Despite posting a combined 1-5 record against Central Michigan and Eastern Michigan the past two weekends, the Huskies put themselves in position to win both series but couldn’t pull it out. That said, NIU finds itself in good shape heading into the final three MAC series of the year considering they have already played the top teams while the rest of the West has yet to experience the wrath of CMU and EMU, whom have a combined conference record of 30-4.

Pitching back on track

The Huskies went 2-2 last week with a win over Illinois-Chicago and EMU. In all four games this past week, Huskie pitching was solid, if not brilliant.

Sophomore Brandon Copp got back on track last Tuesday against UIC when he went five innings and gave up only two earned runs.

Trevor Feeney and Mark Badgley were the hard-luck losers in Friday and Sunday’s losses to EMU. Once again, Feeney did his job on Friday, going eight innings while allowing only three earned runs with seven strike outs. In Sunday’s loss, Badgley went 7.1 innings, gave up a miniscule one earned run, and fanned a career-high 10 batters with a fastball that hit 93 mph.

Matt Jernstad’s performance on Saturday was the most impressive of the week. The junior left-hander pitched a career-high eight innings and allowed just one earned run and four hits in the NIU blowout win.

Hot bats

Sophomore catcher Matt Behren hit .545 and slugged .646 in four games last week and hit safely in all three games he started during the week. The Elmwood Park native equaled his career-high with four RBI, three hits and three runs scored in Saturday’s win.

In Friday’s loss, Jesse Seykora tallied his 13th multi-hit game of the season, tying him with Scott Simon for the team lead. The Huskies’ two homers in Saturday’s win marked the first multi-home run game since hitting three long balls on April 15 against Miami.

Movin’ on up

Simon collected two doubles in Saturday’s win, moving him into a fourth place tie on the MAC’s career doubles list with 65. Head coach Ed Mathey moved into sole possession of third place on the NIU career victory list Saturday when he recorded his 127th win.