The NIU baseball team was supposed to entertain Calumet College for its home opener but instead will host Lakeland College for a doubleheader at noon Saturday at Ralph McKinzie Field.

Scheduling conflicts got in the way for Calumet College, NIU coach Ed Mathey said.

The weather in the area hasn’t been very favorable for baseball recently, which has Mathey concerned.

“It’s tough to get games in and it’s hard just trying to get a field to practice on. We have a lot of things to play for; we put out two poor efforts this weekend and we haven’t played in a week so we need to be mentally prepared to play,” Mathey said.

Lakeland’s No. 1 starter Steve Plucinski will pitch one of the two games, Mathey said. Plucinski has a fastball up in the mid-90s.

“Steve Plucinski is pretty good,” Mathey said. “Scouts are looking at him, and any time you’ve got a guy that can throw like he can, you have to worry. Baseball is a special game because a pitcher can shut out a good team. In football, a Division III school wouldn’t have enough size to compete, but anything can happen in baseball. These guys went to the Division III World Series a few years ago.”

NIU will run senior pitcher Joe Piekarz on the mound in Game 1 and senior Zach Minor in Game 2. Minor ranks second in the MAC in strikeouts with 26 and in innings with 27.2. He leads the conference with a 3-0 record.

The Huskies will look to designated hitter Scott Simon to provide the offensive production. The Algonquin native leads the MAC in batting average at .476, RBI at 32, doubles with 11 and has collected 30 hits.

“It’s a different frame than conference, but these games are still important,” Mathey said. “When you look at having 38, 39 or 40 wins at the end of the year, these games are important. Wins are wins.”