While most students can’t wait for the weekend, it hasn’t been too kind to the NIU baseball team.

In four weekends of MAC play, the Huskies have gone 1-11 – the worst in the MAC. NIU will head to Akron for a three-game series, the first of which begins at 2 p.m. today.

“This could be a big series for us,” NIU coach Ed Mathey said. “We can’t just give up and pitch it in. We have to keep playing hard and hopefully come out on the winning end.”

One thing NIU will have to improve on if they want a good weekend is its errors. The Huskies lead the MAC with 97 errors – 33 more than the next team.

Along with leading the MAC in errors, the Huskies also have the lowest fielding percentage at .937.

This fact isn’t lost on Mathey. The third-year coach has been concentrating the team’s practices on defense, but improvement has been slow coming as the Huskies have committed 11 in their last five games.

“I think the key to this series for us is: Are we going to play some defense?” Mathey said. “If we do that, then we can win.”

In its last two games, Akron (15-21 overall, 4-3 MAC) has scored 11 and 14 runs, respectively, in wins over West Virginia and Duquesne.

“Akron could be a decent match up offensively,” Mathey said. “They have more speed than us, and they have been hitting lately, but overall they have about the same batting average as us. The main thing is we have to get the key hits to score runs. We can’t keep letting opportunities go to waste.”

NIU will get the offensive boost of Jake Blair back into the line-up. The senior came back Sunday against Central Michigan after missing two weeks with back spasms.

Blair is the fifth leading hitter (.281) on the team and also third on the team with four home runs.