NIU baseball coach Ed Mathey couldn’t have asked for a better performance from his pitchers Saturday.

Juniors Zach Minor and Joe Piekarz didn’t allow a run while permitting just four hits in a doubleheader sweep of Calumet College, 15-1 and 6-0.

Minor took the mound in game one and went five innings, striking out five to up his season record to 3-1.

“Zach did outstanding,” Mathey said. “There’s no reason at all he couldn’t have completed that ballgame, but he had done what he was set out to do and it was time to get a couple other guys in, give them some game time.”

Freshman catcher Anthony Venetucci believed that Minor’s performance was nothing out of the ordinary.

“He’s usually good with his control and his command, and it was no different [Saturday],” Venetucci said. “All I had to do was go back there and catch the ball.”

Minor has the lowest ERA for a starter – 2.55 for the Huskies. He’s allowed eight runs in 31 and a third inning this season.

Piekarz had an even better game going the distance. The lefty gave up no walks and just two hits. The junior transfer threw only 60 pitches in seven innings.

“I threw strikes,” Piekarz said. “I kept making sure I got ahead of the hitters and I just wanted to make them hit it, not walks.”

Aside from a last inning home run in Game 1 off of Matt Steiger, NIU’s pitchers allowed only one runner to reach third base.