DeKALB | When NIU baseball coach Ed Mathey added NAIA St. Xavier University to the schedule early last week, he didn’t picture the outcome that would ensue.

The Cougars, out of the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference, came to DeKalb Tuesday afternoon and beat the Huskies 8-2 at Ralph McKinzie Field.

Although three regulars – Matt Behren, Danny Reed and Jesse Seykora – started the game on the bench, Mathey expected more out of his team.

“The message is going to be clear to our guys after this one,” Mathey said. “You need to come out every day and deserve to win the game.”

Freshman Cody Beck took the hill for the Huskies (20-12) in his first collegiate start. After a scoreless first inning, Cougars shortstop John O’Brien hit a two-out, two-run homer in the top of the second to give SXU an early 2-0 advantage. Two innings later, SXU (17-12) scored four runs fueled by two Huskie walks and a hit batter. Beck left after just 3.2 innings of work.

“We went into this game trying to get some guys in there,” Mathey said. “We hoped to come out right away and score some runs for Beck, but we didn’t do that.”

With the score 6-0 in the bottom of the fourth, the Huskies loaded the bases with no outs but only managed to score one run. Starting right fielder Daniel Jewett hit into a 6-4-3 double play that scored the lone run of the inning.

“We got a three-one pitch with the bases loaded in that at bat,” Mathey said. “We’ve got to produce better in those situations.”

Both Behren and Seykora got their first at-bat in the bottom in the seventh. After Behren walked, Seykora smacked a double over the center fielder’s head to score Behren and give the Huskies their second and final run of the game.

SXU added two insurance runs in the top of the eighth off another two-out home run by O’Brien.

“They’re a real good team,” said O’Brien, the Lake Zurich product and friend of NIU freshman Jordin Hood. “We came in here realizing they’re a D-1 school, so we wanted to show what we’re made of.”

Luckily for the Huskies, they’ll have a chance to bounce back today as they travel to Iowa City to take on the Iowa Hawkeyes at 6 p.m. Left-hander Adam Holdenrid will take the hill tomorrow for NIU in its first and only battle against a Big Ten team this year.