It was a quiet and solemn bus ride home for the NIU baseball team.

The Huskies had high hopes for a win against a Chicago State team that had won only four games this season. But giving up a three run lead in the late inning allowed CSU to win 9-8 in 10 innings.

“I think we’re really disappointed with our performance,” NIU coach Ed Mathey said. “We had some great chances early but didn’t capitalize on them.”

The game started off very similar to when CSU (5-39) visited DeKalb on April 19. In that game, NIU went up early and stayed ahead for the win on just one hit.

The Huskies (11-29-1) went up 2-0 on one hit and continued to add to their lead but four base running errors prevented the lead from growing.

Freshman Dave Nykiel made his first start and pitched pretty well but got tired in the seventh inning and gave up three runs to tie the game at 7-7, Mathey said.

CSU took an 8-7 lead in the eighth only to allow NIU to tie it back up in the ninth.

But in the 10th CSU’s Jason Grace singled to right field and then was knocked home by a single from Joe Perez.