It was getting late and NIU baseball’s Jesse Seykora was getting his final practice in before the next day’s game against Illinois State.

Seykora, stuck in a “cold spell” at the plate, was taking his last hits off the tee. He had been playing with the idea of a new batting stance. Normally using an open stance, Seykora wanted something different. So he brought his front foot in and widened his foot spacing.

Hitting off the tee, Seykora liked what he felt and figured, since he was in a slump, he’d use the new swing against ISU.

With two outs in the first inning and Scott Simon on first after rubbing out a bean ball, Seykora strolled to the plate.

He did exactly what he did on the tee: closed and widened his stance. Sometime during the at-bat, Seykora saw a pitch he liked and took a swing.

Seykora made solid contact and he took off for first with the ball quickly flying over the infield. The left fielder took his jump and ran after the ball, but there wasn’t enough room in the field to hold the ball.

One new stance, one at-bat, one home run.

Needless to say, Seykora was ecstatic.

“I thought, ‘This is the swing’,” Seykora said. “It was like I had found a hidden treasure.”

But as the season progressed, Seykora didn’t practice the new stance as much and fell back into his old open stance.

When Seykora came back in the fall, he made sure to work with NIU hitting coach Tim McDonough to improve that “new” stance he had been working on.

McDonough said that with the open stance, Seykora rotated his upper body too much on swings. But in the closed stance, the rotation is cut down and he’s more balanced.

But there was still a problem.

“I couldn’t hit a curve,” Seykora said.

McDonough and Seykora worked tirelessly to tweak his swing. Hours upon hours were spent in the batting cage.

The results of that labor, well, they speak for themselves.

Over an eight-game spring break trip last week in Florida, Seykora hit .500, slugged 1.031, hit five home runs with 15 RBIs, scored 17 runs and stole four bases. Oh, and he’s riding a 12-game hit streak.

Basically, he couldn’t have filled the stat sheet much more. He was named MAC West Player of the Week on Monday and put on the College Baseball Foundation’s Honor Roll on Wednesday.

Both McDonough and Seykora credit Seykora’s hitting approach and plate patience.

“He was a free swinger early on,” McDonough says. “Patience and maturity have allowed him to succeed as a hitter.”

Seykora says he aims to not waste an at-bat. He knows what he likes (fastballs) and that’s the pitch he tries to put one good swing on; at least until the first strike, then he adjusts to curves.

“[NIU first baseman] Scott Simon can hit any ball anywhere. I’m not like that,” Seykora said. “I need a pitch I can really drive.”

And apparently, Seykora has seen his fair share of pitches he can drive this season.

Head coach Ed Mathey said he saw Seykora’s offseason work and knew he was going to be a better player, but he didn’t know this much better.

“You can’t ever expect that type of output,” Mathey said. “It seems like every time he’s in an RBI situation, he comes through.”

And all because of a late night with a hitting tee.