An NIU baseball team that recently struggled with its bats has found them suddenly coming alive in the last two games.

Hitting is considered contagious, and the Huskies found that out against Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Tuesday and Illinois-Chicago on Wednesday. Before those games, the Huskies have either scored no runs or tallied double-digit runs.

The Huskies, who defeated UIC 11-8, were led by the hitting of Dan Urban, Kyle Kimme and Pat Kerrigan, who combined for nine hits, 11 RBI and six runs scored. Urban went 3-of-4 with four RBI.

“‘Hitting is contagious’ is definitely true,” Urban said. “Once one guy gets a hit, the rest of the team gets confidence and things just follow up.”

Kimme agreed, saying there are days when everyone hits and others when everyone struggles. In Wednesday’s game, Kimme broke out of his slump, going 4-for-5 and coming a home run away from the cycle.

With the bases loaded in the sixth, Kimme came up looking for that homer, but instead hit a high chopper that went about 20 feet in front of home plate.

“I crushed it,” he laughed. “Sometimes it feels a little better to get a little dinker like that than a hard line drive.”

Kimme’s attitude reflects the one the Huskies had against UIC. It showed on the field, helping them to play better, said coach Dave Schrage.

“[Tuesday] and [Wednesday] we were more relaxed and taking better swings,” he said. “I know we’re a good club, and we’re a good team, especially when we relax.”