For NIU baseball coach Ed Mathey, a blowout loss is the perfect time to remind his players of the importance of fundamentals.

A day after losing 17-5 to Central Michigan, the Huskies (19-20 overall, 8-7 MAC) became more patient at the plate and delivered with a series-clinching 12-5 win Sunday. The win was Mathey’s 100th at NIU as the team took two out of three games in DeKalb against the MAC-leading Chippewas (24-17, 10-5).

“It’s good to see that [the players] sometimes pay attention to us,” Mathey said. “We talked a lot about pitch selection and discipline in the strike zone. As far as [CMU’s] errors, we’ll take those things.”

The NIU bats proved clutch as the offense scored eight of its runs with two outs in an inning. The Chippewas also contributed to the cause with 12 walks, four hit batters and four errors.

The Huskies blew the game open with seven combined runs in the third and fourth inning to take an 8-3 lead. Third baseman Jesse Seykora contributed his second home run of the weekend with a drive to left field that was carried out by the wind.

“The conditions were perfect,” Seykora said. “I practiced being more patient at the plate. I laid off some of the slider junk he was throwing me and I waited to get my pitch and I got it up in the air.”

In Game No. 2, CMU’s potent offense jumped out to a big lead that it wouldn’t relinquish. CMU poured the offense on by scoring at least one run in the final five innings, including five in the sixth inning and four in the seventh. The Chippewas used 18 hits, including two home runs by first baseman Ben Humphrey, along with four NIU errors to finish the game with a 17-5 victory.

After the Chippewas scored the first run in Game No. 1, Seykora answered in his first at-bat with a long three-run shot to left field to give NIU a 4-1 lead. But the real drama came in the ninth inning when closer Matt German loaded the bases with no outs and NIU leading 5-3.

After striking out a pinch hitter, German walked in a run for only his second earned run of the season. The next batter Troy Moratti hit a hard ground ball off the pitchers mound to Stevens, who turned the double play to end the game at 5-4.