NIU senior pitcher Dan Badgley finally got back into the form expected of him.

Even though the Huskies lost to Chicago State, 4-2, on Wednesday, the senior pitcher worked four and two-thirds innings in relief and surrendered only one run. Badgley struck out seven batters, and allowed one hit and two walks.

“We got a nice performance from Badgley,” said NIU coach Dave Schrage. “That was encouraging. It was nice to see him throw well today. He threw his slider for strikes and was able to get his fastball in on the hitters a lot better than his last outing. He kept us in the game. None of our hitters went out and did it, but Dan competed.”

Chicago State (8-27 overall) got on the board early, scoring three runs in the first three innings.

The Huskies (20-21) scored their first run in the top of the fourth when shortstop Bilal Omar scored on a Dan Urban single. NIU was not able to score another run until the top of the ninth inning when Urban scored after the Huskies got into a double-play.

Schrage said the Huskies had many chances to score, but left 13 men on base, eight which came in the first three innings.

The Huskies had seven hits and had a combined 10 walks or hits by pitches.

“We wasted numerous opportunities all day,” Schrage said. “None of our hitters stepped up and hit in clutch situations. We had plenty of opportunities to score a lot of runs, but instead we let 13 guys on base. It was very disheartening. For the second game in a row we came out with a lack of intensity.”