It came down to one of the most difficult plays in the game for the NIU baseball team Sunday.

The suicide squeeze, bringing the runner on third home with a bunt, gave NIU a 3-2 lead that it wouldn’t relinquish in the 5-2 win.

Fresh off a pitching change, a meeting in the NIU dugout set the tone for the game-winning play.

NIU third base coach Steve Joslyn peered into the dugout, and got the nod from head coach Ed Mathey; the suicide would happen on a 1-0 count.

Joslyn ran through his signs, checked his runner at third, junior left fielder Jeff Thomas, and had a front row-seat for the pulse-pounding play.

Kent State junior-left hander Ryan Davis, with his back to third, couldn’t see the runner break.

Junior second baseman Marc Besteman, already dug into the left-handed batters box, watched Thomas creep down the third-base line in foul territory, and then, with cheetah-like acceleration, head toward home.

“Just get the bunt down, and don’t show too early at third,” Joslyn said were the keys to the play. “That is a play that just grabs the momentum back in your favor and gives them a sort of defeated attitude.”

Thomas was safe at home.

“I just waited for the pitcher to put his foot down, and I was going,” Thomas said. “Kent State is a pretty good ball team. This feels a lot better than yesterday.”

Mathey said the suicide squeeze takes a lot of practice and timing.

“There is a timing mechanism involved,” Mathey said. “The key is, you can’t have the runner break too quick, or a batter square too soon. Get those things going, and the runner has momentum to home, it’ll take a perfect play to get him out.”

On a pitch that would have hit him if the suicide wasn’t on, Besteman softly dropped a bunt down that allowed NIU to salvage at least one game in the weekend series.

“[Thomas] leaves when the pitchers foot hits the ground,” Besteman said. “I can’t square up till I see him coming. He got a great jump; he was there. The pitch was at my chest but I got it down.”