John and Joel Vanden Berg never expected to be opponents.

But for the first time in their collegiate and high school careers, the twins went against each other in baseball action Tuesday.

The Vanden Bergs were teammates for the NIU baseball team for the last two years, and teammates in high school as well. Huskie Joel and company emerged victorious, 9-8, over his brother’s team in their encounter at Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

The twins said they had looked forward to the faceoff, and had Tuesday circled on their calender. John Vanden Berg, the Panthers’ starting catcher, was 2-for-4 with two runs scored. Joel, who started at second base, was 2-for-4 and had one RBI.

“We knew it was going to be a every exciting game,” John said. “I was really looking forward to this game at the beginning of the season. Even though we are aiming more for the conference title, this was a nice non-conference game to play.”

It was hard for the two to accept that John wouldn’t be at NIU this season, but Joel said it proved to be an easy transition. The brothers were together most of the time last season and even were roommates last year.

John’s reasons for leaving NIU were mostly personal, especially because Wisconsin-Milwaukee is closer to home.

“I didn’t have a problem with him leaving,” Joel said. “It wasn’t much of a big deal. I enjoyed our time when he was at Northern, but he had to do what he had to do.”

John added: “It was fun to finally play against [Joel]. I don’t get the chance to do that very often. Our whole lives have been growing up and playing together on the same team.”

Joel was happy Tuesday about getting his brother out on a double play.

“I wasn’t really thinking about it when it happened,” he said. “After the play, I realized what happened, and it was nice to get one-up on my brother.”