Dave Schrage hopes the NIU baseball team can continue with its early-season success.

After sweeping Tennessee-Martin in the three-game series last weekend, the Huskies will face Murray State in another three-game series starting Friday. The sweep over the Skyhawks was the Huskies’ first since the 1996 season, when they swept Cleveland State.

“It was a great way to start the season,” Schrage said. “I thought we would come out and hit the ball because all we’ve done for the past three weeks is pound the ball inside. The other parts of our game are way ahead of where I thought they would be.”

Murray State is coming off a sweep of its own, defeating Wright State in a three-game series. The Racers were one of the four victors during the 1999 season that saw the Huskies go 4-51-1. The Huskies defeated Murray State 8-7.

Junior outfielder Pat Kerrigan carried his success from last season into the start of this season, as he went 8-for-12 for the weekend and hit 2 home runs and batted in 5 runs.

Dan Badgley won the first game of the season for the Huskies, pitching a strong seven innings and striking out nine batters, one shy of his career-high.