With a relentless wind blowing directly in toward home plate and a pair of feisty teams, both factors caused several delays as the Northern Illinois baseball team did not come out on top, losing an 11-7 decision to Buffalo in the three-game series deciding finale on Easter Sunday in Mid-American Conference action.
“I’m not going to try to fool anybody and say these weren’t difficult playing conditions out here today with the wind and dust kicking up, but both teams had to play with the same conditions,” said NIU head baseball coach Ed Mathey. “The weather is fair for both teams. It’s who handles it better and Buffalo did a better job of handling it today. They were hitting down and hard through the ball. Our infield is hard, dried out, and windblown. They hit balls hard on the ground and we hit balls in the air. That’s something that we didn’t make a good adjustment to and I tip my cap to Buffalo for making the adjustment.”
The Huskies (9-17, 3-3 MAC) posted back-to-back three-run innings in the second and third to claim a 6-4 lead through four but it all came apart in the fifth. Kyle Glancy came in to pitch for starter Zach Oates to begin the frame and gave up three consecutive singles to trim the lead, 6-5. On the last single, Alex Beckmann’s errant throw home allowed the runners to take an extra base, and an out later, one scored on a ground out to second and the other scored on a single up the middle. A wild pitch then moved another runner into scoring position at second base and he moved to third on an infield single to short stop Alex Jones, who had no play after fielding the ball deep in the hole to his right. A passed ball by catcher Brett Frantini would then give the Bulls (13-11, 3-3 MAC) an 8-6 advantage before a fly-out to center ended the rally.
“We needed to try to shut that fifth inning down, and we didn’t,” Mathey said. “Kyle’s been pretty solid for us as of late, but they sure centered a lot of balls on him. We could have made some defensive plays here and there to help out but we didn’t get it done. That added fuel to the fire and next thing you know they have a four-spot up on us.
“We had a couple relatively routine plays and we have to make those. We can’t win games in this league, or anywhere really, playing like that. Our pitchers were getting squared up today, too, and that’s just a bad combination of things.”
NIU countered with a run in the bottom half of the fifth after Troy White’s grounder to second scored Jordin Hood, who reached on a single off the UB short stop’s glove as he was diving to his right, stole second, and moved to third on Dave Reynolds’ one-hopper to second.
But Buffalo answered with another run in the sixth to keep the Huskies two runs away, 9-7. After a one-out walk, lefty Tom Zelasko came in to relieve Glancy and got the first out on a fly to left field. He then gave up an infield single that took a high hop over Jones’ head and another infield single off his own glove that was fielded by White, who had no play. A bases-loaded hit-by-pitch then forced in a run before Zelasko struck out the next batter looking to end it.
“We did a nice job getting the run back in the bottom half of the fifth,” said Mathey. “But they came back and grabbed a run in the sixth to get a little momentum. They’re reliever did a nice job against us. I thought we had a chance to get to him as his pitch count increased because he hasn’t thrown a lot of innings, but that didn’t happen.”
The Bulls added to their lead with two more in the eighth off Andy Deain, who kept UB from scoring the seventh. A one-out fielding error by second baseman Marvin Sanchez and a walk set up an RBI double to left and a run-scoring single to center to give the Bulls the 11-7 final tally.
In the ninth, NIU had a pair on with two outs after Sanchez and Beckmann both walked, but Hood ended the game with a fielder’s choice grounder for an unassisted force at third base.
After the Huskies chased lefty starter Josh Edwards in the third inning, reliever Kevin Crumb (2-0) finished the game for the win, allowing one run on two hits and two walks with three strikeouts over the final 6.2 frames. Edwards gave up six runs, four earned, on eight hits and two walks with two strikeouts in 2.1 innings.
Glancy (2-3) took the loss, surrendering five runs, four earned, on five hits and a walk in 1.1 innings. Oates threw a stressful four innings, giving up four runs, two earned, on eight hits and a walk.
White led the offense with two hits, two runs, and an RBI. Jones and Sanchez added two hits and an RBI apiece. Hood also had two hits and scored two runs.
On deck for the Huskies is a Tuesday road game against Illinois State at 4:30 pm CDT.
