NIU’s Mike Santoro looked out at the scoreboard at the end of Tuesday’s baseball game and was in shock.

The last number in Valparaiso’s line was seven – as in seven errors.

With the wind blowing out and Valpo’s mistakes piling up, NIU baseball team jumped out to a 8-0 lead en route to a 12-8 victory.

“I was surprised to see how many errors they made,” Santoro said. “But I think we put a lot of pressure on them by constantly putting the ball in play.”

NIU’s Eric Sansouci started the team off right as he singled in Santoro in the first. Sansouci finished the game 3-for-5 and tied Greg Larsen for the team lead with three RBI’s.

NIU continued to take advantage early, using four errors in the first three innings to score six unearned runs. By the time Valpo finally put four runs on the board in the fourth it was facing an eight run deficit.

Nick Hall started the game for Huskies and improved to 1-1 with his six-inning effort. The right-hander gave up seven runs on eight hits, but walked only one batter.

“Nick gave a strong effort out there today with the conditions the way they were,” Santoro said. “It was a tough day to pitch with the wind blowing out, but he did what he had to do to get the win.”