Eric Sansouci said it best after a windy, blustery day of baseball Saturday at Ralph McKinzie Field.

“It was pretty much a circus out there,” said the NIU right fielder, who drove in six runs in the Huskies’ 12-0, 18-2 doubleheader sweep of visiting Lakeland College.

On a day when fierce winds wreaked havoc on numerous pop-ups and fly balls, the Huskies improved their record to 11-7 in their first home games of the season.

Starting pitchers Joe Piekarz and Zach Minor picked up the wins as they threw a combined 10 innings and struck out eight Lakeland batters.

Even though the Huskies jumped out to big early leads in both contests, Piekarz (3-2) and Minor (4-0) said they knew Lakeland was never out of the game with the wind whipping out to left field.

“Especially on a day like today, I knew that they could have a big inning and get right back in the game,” Piekarz said. “I still had to make good pitches even with the big lead.”

Sansouci, center fielder Jeremy Busch and first baseman Mike Hochhauser all hit home runs. Sansouci had five hits and six RBIs on the day. Kyle Pettengell drove in five runs in Game 2.

NIU designated hitter Scott Simon drove in two more runs and registered his team-high 12th and 13th doubles. He now has driven in 34 runs in 18 games this season. No other Huskie has more than 17 RBIs.

Saturday’s action was the first for the Huskies since March 14 when they ended a stretch of 10 games in 11 days.

“You could just tell the guys were ready to go today,” Busch said. “Guys’ bodies were starting to get worn down toward the end of our last trip. We just needed a break.”

While Lakeland fielders never mastered the wind on the way to committing five errors on the day, the Huskies didn’t commit any errors.

“You just had to be real patient,” Busch said. “You had to sit back and make sure you didn’t overrun the ball.”

The next action for the Huskies comes Wednesday when they host Wheaton College.

“Today was a very good day for us,” coach Ed Mathey said. “Our pitchers did a great job, and our defense was pretty solid. Hopefully, we can take this and get some momentum going.”