Jeremy Busch graduated high school with a class of 97 people and lived in a town, Genoa, with a population of 4,500. So it may seem understandable why the NIU center fielder likes to meet new people.

Busch had to do just that this year as he was surrounded by a group of new outfielders including Jake Blair, Mike Hochhauser and Eric Sansouci.

“We definitely had to work on our communication,” Busch said. “Eric and Jake haven’t been here the past few years, so we needed to get our communication down.”

The Huskies (18-17 overall) will host St. Xavier (27-16-1) for a doubleheader at 1:30 p.m. today at Ralph McKinzie Field, where Busch will try to help the Huskies improve on their 6-2 record at home.

Communication is something that has never been hard for the junior, as his upbringing in Genoa led to his ability to socialize easily.

“Growing up in a small town, you knew everybody,” the 6-foot junior said. “You have to have good communication skills if you want to meet new people.”

Busch is the Huskies’ lead-off hitter, commander in the outfield and one of four team captains.

He is known as one of the more vocal leaders on the team, which doesn’t bother coach Ed Mathey.

“He’s our vocal guy; he’s our emotional guy,” Mathey said. “That’s why it was such an easy choice to make him a captain. He’s the guy that’ll tell you what he thinks and speak his mind, but he doesn’t expect anything out of anybody that he isn’t putting out there himself.”

Busch said he’s the first to congratulate a teammate but also the first to let a teammate know when something is wrong.

“The guys know when I step up and say something to them that I don’t mean it in a bad way, I mean it in a good way,” Busch said. “We’re all out there for the same reason: to win.”