March came in like a lion for the NIU baseball team. The Huskies lost their first two games, the second being a frustrating extra-innings loss to Southern Illinois.

The end of March didn’t prove to be any better. The Huskies lost 4-3 Tuesday in a 15-inning ordeal to Northern Iowa that ended in a controversial triple play.

But April is a new month and the start of the real test for the Huskies: conference play. The Huskies (5-13) begin a three-game set with Ball State on Friday.

Even with a slow start, expectations are still high for the team that had amounted a 63-50 record over the past two seasons.

“I still expect us to be in the front of the MAC,” Huskies outfielder Mike Santoro said. “So far, I think we’re doing OK, but there are a lot of things we need to improve on. I think we’ll be OK, even with the rough start.”

Santoro, who hit a record-setting 15 home runs in 2003 but sat out last season with an injury to his right foot, currently shares the team lead at five home runs with Jeremy Busch.

“It’s great to be able to be healthy and play every day,” Santoro said. “It’s just fun being out there.”

But with Santoro back, lead run producer Scott Simon, who led the MAC with 71 RBIs last season, is nursing his right wrist back to health after straining it March 15 in a game against Louisville.

Simon had his first at bat in two weeks Tuesday, a slow dribbler to the right side of the pitcher’s mound that resulted in an infield single and an RBI that tied up the game 3-3 against Northern Iowa.

“We’re going to see how he does [against Bradley]” NIU baseball coach Ed Mathey said Tuesday. “That’s going to be the key indicator, but he did a decent job today putting the ball in play.”

One positive for the Huskies has been the performances of young pitchers. Two freshmen, Brian Smith and Adam Holdenrid, lead the Huskies with ERAs of 2.30 and 2.84, respectively.

Pitching was a concern for Mathey in the off season with the graduation of the team’s top two starters, Zach Minor and Joe Piekarz, and closer Trevor Wohlgemuth.

“Any time you lose the quality of pitching that we lost, it’s always a concern,” the third-year coach said. “As far as our young guys, we’re definitely excited about them. But not so much surprised. How they’re making the adjustment to college pitching is really good for us.”

The Huskies had their first full outdoor practice Monday and hope it will help get rid of fielding errors that have hampered the season so far.

“There’s no question about how much it helps,” Santoro said of the outdoor practices. “Just to be able to simulate the speed of the game helps. All the southern teams can play scrimmages, but we’re inside in a gym.”

Mathey said he has seen improvement from his team throughout the last three games – two of which have been wins – and hopes to fine tune some of the Huskies’ fundamentals.

“Right now, we’re just trying to make plays that make us win ball games,” Mathey said. “Last year’s team was a bit more veteran at different positions. They didn’t panic, they executed. We’re working on finding that right now. This team has ability, but we have to execute.”