With a little dust in the wind on a gusty, warm Friday afternoon at Ralph McKinzie Field, the Northern Illinois baseball team gave head coach Ed Mathey his 400th career win by taking down Buffalo, 6-1, in Game One of a three-game Mid-American Conference series, marking the team’s sixth win in its last seven contests.
“Four hundred, I guess, just means I’m getting old,” said Mathey, the all-time wins leader at NIU, who is 400-389-3 in his 16-year career, 195-218-1 at Northern. “I’ve been doing this for a long time, but the thing for me today was the way we played today and how we got this 400th win. We played with a lot of maturity out there. We performed well and attacked to get the win. Hopefully we get 401 tomorrow and 402 Sunday. That’s the big thing.”
With a hard wind blowing in from right and center field for most of the day, the Huskies (9-15, 3-1 MAC) started early with some small ball to take a 2-0 first-inning lead. Alex Jones started it with a single to left and moved to second on Alex Beckmann’s sacrifice bunt. One out later, Dave Reynolds cued one off the end of the bat for a single that spun down the third base line. Then with Troy White at the dish, Reynolds attempted a delayed steal that drew a throw to second, but the short stop did not get to it in time as the ball trickled past his glove into shallow center, allowing Jones to score from third. White followed with a single up the middle and drew a throw as he was attempting to reach second base, allowing Reynolds to scurry home, sliding in safely under the tag as the throw home forced the catcher to catch it high and right before tagging back low and left.
“We talked about how important it was to get a lead early on a day like today,” Mathey said. “The wind was a factor, and if you can play to it, it goes well in your favor. We did a nice job in the first inning of executing. Jones had a nice piece of hitting after being down 0-2 in the count and Beckmann laid down a good sac bunt. Reynolds did a nice job with the delayed steal. We caught a break, quite frankly, but he did a nice job of forcing the throw, and it wasn’t easy to throw today, either.
“Our hitters had a good approach today, going with pitches and squaring them up nicely. We had a lot of hits up the middle, which is a good sign.”
After a two-out run in the second for Buffalo (11-11, 1-3 MAC), in which second baseman Joe Buonavolanto’s dive to his left kept the ball in the infield, preventing another run from scoring, the Bulls only trailed by a run, 2-1, but did not muster anymore runs after that point.
NIU answered in the third as Beckmann reached on a throwing error by the short stop that moved him to second base. An out later with Reynolds at the plate, Beckmann advanced to third on a pick-off attempt throwing error by the pitcher as the ball ended up in center, while Reynolds finished the at-bat with a walk. In the next sequence, White singled off the pitcher’s glove as the ball bounced to the short stop, but he had no play, and Beckmann scored. After a two-out single to center by Jake Hermsen loaded the bases, Brett Frantini walked to give the Huskies a 4-1 lead.
In the fifth, NIU received another run after a Frantini one-out single to left scored Joe Etcheverry, who reached on a single to left and moved to third on a Hermsen single through the right side.
The final Huskie tally came in the eighth after Beckmann doubled down the right field line to score Jones, who reached on a fielder’s choice grounder to second.
Southpaw starter Chuck Lukanen (2-5) earned the win by throwing his second complete game of his career and NIU’s first this season. He was also the last Huskie to complete a start, doing so in a 16-3 win at Central Michigan May 1st, 2009. Against the Bulls, he scattered five hits, surrendering just one run and three walks with five strikeouts. In the only real jam he got himself into with one out and runners on second and third in the sixth frame, he induced a foul-out to first baseman Reynolds and struck out the next batter swinging.
“Chuck did an outstanding job today,” said Mathey. “He commanded the zone and game. When he really needed to make some pitches in the sixth inning, he did.
“Our defense did a good job, especially with the wind today. All in all, it was a good Friday win in the MAC and hopefully it sets the tone for us for the rest of the weekend.”
Buffalo starter Chaz Mye (3-3) took the loss after giving up five runs, two earned, on eight hits and two walks in 4.1 innings.
Frantini led the offense with two singles in three at-bats, two RBI and a walk. Hermsen, Jones and White each had two hits, as well.
The teams will play Game Two tomorrow at 1:05 p.m. CDT and the series finale at 1:05 p.m. Sunday.
Additionally, the Huskies’ next game after this weekend’s home series has been changed to a 4:30 p.m. first pitch at Illinois State Tuesday.
