Huskies baseball coach Dave Schrage has noticed a difference in his team the last two games.

In NIU’s victory over Illinois-Chicago on Wednesday, Schrage saw the Huskies being more confident than they were in their nine previous games. They have won their last two contests against non-conference foes Wisconsin-Milwaukee and UIC.

“We needed to get some momentum,” said the second-year coach. “Coming off the weekend, we were like, ‘Well, what are we made of?’ We stuck together, and [Tuesday] gave us a lot of momentum that carried into [Wednesday].”

The Huskies received solid pitching from senior pitcher Brad Gavelek, who threw for six and two-thirds innings and struck out eight Flames batters, but gave up seven runs.

His eight strikeouts move Gavelek into third place in the Mid-American Conference with 50.

“I am a different pitcher this year,” Gavelek said. “I am throwing more fastballs.”

Gavelek already has broken the NIU record for most innings pitched in a career with 265.2, breaking the 262 set by Jesse Richardson. He didn’t realize he was close to breaking the mark until he took the mound.

“Someone had to point that out to me,” he said. “It is cool, really nice. I have been here for four years. It is nice to have.”

“Gav has been a mainstay in our program,” Schrage said. “He has been a workhorse. He works a lot of innings. He has been a big part of our pitching staff and what we are about. He deserves that.”

The Huskies fell behind initially as the Flames took the early 3-0 lead. But NIU put up three runs in the bottom of the third inning to tie the game. Junior outfielder Pat Kerrigan then hit a single to right field to bring in two runs, and Dan Urban hit a double to right-center to tie the game at 3 apiece. Kerrigan and Urban had a combined nine RBI against the Flames.

NIU scored five runs in the bottom of the sixth to take a 10-5 lead and never looked back, scoring an insurance run in the eighth inning to take the victory.

“Pat Kerrigan and Dan Urban had an outstanding game today,” Schrage said. “The other thing I was pleased with was our bullpen. They came in and did a great job. During a weekday game, we got to piece things together and they kept them at bay.”