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| Northern Illinois catcher Brett Frantini (left) and shortstop Alex Jones (center) congratulate each other after defeating Ohio, 7-6, on Friday. (Beck Diefenbach – bdiefenbach@daily-chronicle.com) |
DeKALB – It took a few innings just to figure out how to score it. But by the time the game ended, it was clear how much a fourth-inning appeal meant to the Northern Illinois baseball team.
After taking an early lead against Ohio, NIU's bench thought Ohio's Trace Voshell left third base too early on a flyout to center field by Kory Burkhart in the top of the fourth inning. The Huskies tried to catch Bryan Barnes scrambling back to first base, only to drop the ball on the tag on what would have been the third out of the inning.
That's when NIU immediately appealed and third base umpire Ron Mohler agreed, ending the inning for the Bobcats and costing Ohio a run.
That run proved to be huge for the Huskies, who held on to win, 7-6, Friday at Ralph McKinzie Field.
In case you were scoring, the out went 8-3-4-5.
"We wouldn't have appealed if we didn't think he had left early," NIU coach Ed Mathey said. "It wasn't a huge leave early, but I think the umpire got the call right on that. It turns out it meant a lot and you've got to fight for every run."
And, in retrospect, it was probably a good thing that the drop at first happened, as Mathey detailed to his team after the game.
"We threw behind the runner at first and if we would have held onto the ball, we would have had the third out there. I told my team, 'So what happens there?' They said the run scores. I said 'No.' You go and appeal third, and he's out, and you actually have a four-out inning in the rulebook and then that run doesn't score," Mathey said. "That's a rare occurrence that you can have a four-out inning and that's the only way you can keep that guy from scoring, otherwise they count it."
Offensively, the Huskies (12-20, 5-5 Mid-American Conference) got 13 hits off Ohio (8-23, 4-6 MAC) starter Bryce Butt, including a two-run home run by designated hitter Joe Etcheverry.
NIU thought it blew open the game in the fifth with four runs, including a two-run triple by first baseman Dave Reynolds, who said the Huskies came in with a solid gameplan against Ohio's starter.
"Coach [Mathey] was telling us all week that we need to go back to going middle-opposite," Reynolds said. "I think that's what everyone was trying to do. That's how he was pitching, going away, so we were just going with his pitches."
Chuck Lukanen got the win to improve his record to 3-6. He threw seven innings and allowed 11 hits but struck out four and got help from a couple of good plays by second baseman Alex Beckmann. Andy Deain picked up his sixth save in the ninth after giving up one run.
"Alex Beckmann made a couple of really nice plays at second and it was a good team win for us," Mathey said.
