After losing the first two games of the weekend series to Toledo, NIU coach Dave Schrage was pleased his team showed resiliency and came away with a split.

The Huskies (22-23 overall, 5-14 Mid-American Conference) used great hitting to even the series, scoring 17 and 12 runs in the past two games. NIU dropped the first two games of the series by scores of 9-2 and 15-9.

In Game 2 of Saturday’s double-header, NIU fell behind 3-0 in the first inning but came back in the bottom of the second with three of their own. Rob Marconi knocked in Pat Kerrigan for the first run of the game and later scored along with Joel Vanden Berg on Bilal Omar’s triple.

Then in the third inning, Kerrigan blasted a three-run homer over the right-center fence. The home run put the Huskies up for good, as they won 17-5. Kerrigan later added a bases-clearing double in the sixth.

“I’m feeling pretty confident at the plate,” said Kerrigan. “The ball looks a lot bigger, and it’s starting to fall. When it starts falling, confidence goes up, and that is what’s happening right now.”

In the third inning, starting pitcher Stephen Ayers got hit on the hand by a line drive and was forced to come out of the game with a blood blister on his finger. However, Steve Hardman responded off the bench and came in to throw seven innings, only allowing two hits and two runs.

In the finale on Sunday, the Huskies came out wanting to win one for coach Schrage as he celebrated his 40th birthday. They did it with the 12-6 victory.

The Huskies scored two in the first inning without the benefit of a hit. In the second, Kerrigan continued his hot hitting and flashed some leather in right field. He drove in two runs with a triple in the second and added a single in the fifth. But in the second, he made a diving catch to prevent extra bases and followed it with an outstanding outstretched diving catch in the third.

With one out and runners on second and third, Kerrigan dove and made a catch that saved an extra-base hit and two runs. After the catch, he got up and threw to second base for a double play.

“Pat Kerrigan had a good weekend for us,” said Schrage. “He did it with his bat and his glove. He made the two diving catches, and the double play was just awesome.”

The Huskies put the game away in the fourth inning as they scored seven runs highlighted by a three run homer by Noel Danielson. For the weekend, Danielson went 10-for-17 with eight runs, six RBI, three stolen bases, four walks and two home-runs. He is a strong candidate for MAC player of the week.

The Huskies were looking to win the series, but after losing the first two, they were pretty happy about drawing the split.

“I’m happy with the split because of the way we came back,” said Schrage. “I thought the last two days we hit the ball really well. It was really a good team effort today all the way through.”