With eight games in nine days, the Huskie baseball team experienced its ups and downs, going 4-4.

The week began with a 12-7 victory over Eastern Kentucky in the first game of a doubleheader. Senior Dan Urban hit a grand slam in the top of the eighth inning to give NIU the lead. Junior catcher Derek Barrone was 3-for-3 with two runs scored.

After winning the first game, NIU went on to lose its next three games, 17-13 and 19-4 to Eastern Kentucky and 7-6 to Morehead State.

The Huskies went on to win three of their last four games over break.

NIU beat Eastern Kentucky 7-5 behind two hits apiece from Urban, sophomore centerfielder Mike Brown and junior infielder Josh Owens.

Its other two wins came against Michigan and Winthrop, 12-8 and 11-10.

Against Winthrop, Mike Hochhauser had three hits and a pair of RBIs to lead the way. NIU had six hits in the first inning while scoring five runs.

However, Winthrop scored the next six runs to take a 6-5 lead. NIU fought back with a six-run seventh inning to hold on to a one-run victory.

Every NIU starter had at least one hit.

“It was a good win. It’s nice to finish up the trip with a win,” NIU coach Ed Mathey said. “It was a good grind out game for us. We had a couple of games earlier in the trip where we were in similar situations and we let them go. That’s something we are going to need to continue to do if we are going to reach our goals.”