The NIU baseball team got what senior third baseman Rob Marconi called an “ugly win” on Wednesday.

The Huskies remained undefeated at home with a 5-4 victory over Division III Wheaton College at Ralph McKinzie Field.

As a Division-III school, Wheaton (0-8 overall) still was searching for its first win of the season.

“We weren’t in the right frame of mind,” Marconi said. “It was an ugly win; there’s no other way you can describe it. We should feel lucky to come out with the win.”

NIU (12-7) scored all its runs in the second and fourth innings, when fans could win prizes from Taco Bell and Culver’s for every Huskies hit. The Huskies tallied four of their seven hits during those innings and scored two runs in the second and three in the fourth.

In the second inning, Scott Simon led off the inning with a four-pitch walk before being knocked in by Greg Larson. Larson later was driven in on a single by catcher Tug Gillingham to give the Huskies a 2-0 lead.

Jake Blair and Mike Hochhauser each singled and scored in the fourth inning. Gillingham also reached on a fielder’s choice and scored to increase the lead to 5-1.

That was the end of the scoring for NIU.

Wheaton pitcher Nate Palmer settled down and allowed two hits and no runs in the final four innings.

“He’s a senior, and I told him before the game that I saved him just for this,” Wheaton coach Bobby Elder said. “He did a great job. I told him not to worry about the fact that they are D-I hitters or any of that.”

No NIU hitter finished with more than one hit in the game.

“We knew they were going to come in ready to play,” NIU coach Ed Mathey said. “This was a very good opportunity for them to come in and compete with us.”

Nathan Stillwell allowed five hits and three earned runs to pick up his first win of the season for the Huskies. Senior Trevor Wohlgemuth came in to close the game out in the ninth inning. Wohlgemuth allowed one hit while picking up the save for NIU.