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Huskies Make It A Doubleheader Sweep With Game Two Win Over Bradley

NIU improves to 9-13 on the season, 5-1 against Missouri Valley Conference schools



Matt German picked up his fourth save of the year to complete a doubleheader sweep of Bradley.

March 28, 2006

Box Score

DeKALB, IL - The Northern Illinois Huskies made their home debut a success by sweeping intrastate foe Bradley at Ralph McKinzie Field Tuesday afternoon by scoring 3-2 and 5-3 victories. Winners of four straight games, the Huskies improved to 9-13 on the season while the Braves dropped to 9-11. The game one victory marked the four consecutive home opening win the NIU and when the day was done, the Huskies owned a 5-1 record against Missouri Valley Conference foes.

NIU returns to action Friday afternoon in its MAC home opener against Akron. First pitch at McKinzie Field is slated for 2 p.m.

The nitecap of the doubleheader included more strong pitching and another tightly contested game. This time it was the Huskies who jumped out to an early 1-0 lead when Scott Simon scored Pat Minogue on a sacrifice fly after Minogue led off the inning with a double and Marc Besteman added an infield single.

Bradley took a 2-1 lead in the fourth inning on a Ryan Eigsti RBI single and fielder's choice RBI by Jason Newburger.

NIU rallied for two in the fifth to regain the lead a 3-2. Besteman evened the score when he scored on a throwing error and Bobby Stevens came around to score on the play to put the Huskies on top.

The Huskies tallied two more in the sixth to extend their margin to 5-2 when Minogue singled home pinch-runners Jeff Thomas and Tim Kamin.

The visiting Braves got a run in the seventh on a RBI single from Brad Jones that ended Matt German's streak of consecutive innings without allowing an earned run at 23.1 innings dating back to May 2005 and provided the final score of 5-3.

 

 

Andy Deain (1-1) picked up his first collegiate victory with two innings of scoreless relief and German notched his fourth save of the year while Peter Elmer (1-3) took the loss for Bradley. Huskie starter Brandon Hodge threw four innings and allowed two earned runs.

NOTABLE HUSKIE TRACKS ...

-Ed Mathey earned his 90th victory as coach at NIU and moved into a tie for sixth-place on the school's all-time victory list, sharing the spot with Darrel Black (1957-63).
-NIU has won its last three games against Bradley.
-The Huskies are 5-1 against Missouri Valley Conference Schools this season (2-0 vs. Bradley, 2-1 vs. Southern Illinois, 1-0 vs. Evansville).
-Jesse Seykora was held hitless ending his NIU season-best hitting streak at 11 games.
-Matt German allowed his first earned run of the season after starting the year with a 0.00 ERA for the first 16.1 innings.