NIU baseball coach Ed Mathey knew there was potential for a letdown against Chicago State, and he was right.

The Huskies (22-14) blew a 4-0 lead heading into the seventh inning, in which the Panthers (6-29) scored five times, and lost 7-6.

Not only did the Huskies lose a very winnable game, they failed to preserve the 4-0 lead that righty Matt Steiger left with after six innings.

The junior pitcher made his first career start and threw six innings, allowing five hits, no runs and no walks.

“My slider was working for me today,” Steiger said. “That was one pitch I was able to throw for strikes.”

Junior righty Jim Caine started the seventh inning and allowed four runs without letting the Panthers get a base hit. He walked four batters in his two thirds of an inning pitched.

NIU’s top of the order got off to another good start as the Huskies tallied three runs in the first inning.

Second baseman Josh Owens began the game with an infield single and was followed by Rob Marconi who walked. A wild pitch by Chicago State starter Jason Stamper advanced both runners, and shortstop Joe Mazzuca plated Owens with a single.

Senior Dan Urban then grounded out scoring Marconi and right fielder Mike Santoro, then scored Mazzuca from third with a double into the right-center field gap.

The Huskies struggled to score again until the sixth inning when Santoro hit his team-leading 10th home run over the left field fence with two outs. Santoro went 2-for-4 with a pair of RBIs.

With NIU down 5-4 in the eighth, Urban singled in Mazzuca to tie the game. However, Chicago State came back with two runs in the top of the ninth off freshman Mark Badgley.

NIU had the tying run in scoring position in the bottom of the ninth, but Mazzuca struck out swinging.

“It gave me a little bit of a scare there at the end,” Chicago State coach Terrence Jackson said. “Northern’s a good ballclub. They’ve probably proven that they’re the best team in this state right now, and anytime you’re playing a team of that caliber in their field, they can beat you at anytime.”

NIU scored 17 runs against Lakeland College the day before, but were unable to put together a big inning after the first.

“I wish we could’ve saved some of those runs from yesterday,” Mathey joked. “Two of them would’ve been great.”