May 13, 2009

Probable Pitchers:
Thurs.: NIU LHP Chuck Lukanen (6-6, 5.33, 72.2 IP, 92 H, 34 BB, 52 SO) vs. WMU RHP Billy Morrison (2-8, 7.53, 63.1 IP, 103 H, 22 BB, 41 SO)
Fri.: NIU RHP Chris Wakefield (1-5, 8.10, 40 IP, 48 H, 28 BB, 19 SO) vs. WMU RHP Brian Stroud (3-8, 7.08, 68.2 IP, 91 H, 32 BB, 58 SO)
Sat.: NIU LHP Brandon Copp (0-4, 10.50, 24 IP, 36 H, 14 BB, 17 SO) vs. WMU RHP Eric Heckaman (3-3, 6.33, 54 IP, 61 H, 22 BB, 31 SO)

DeKALB, Ill. - The Northern Illinois baseball team will finish its regular season competition with a three-game set against Western Michigan starting tomorrow with a 2 p.m. CT game at Hyames Field in Kalamazoo, Mich. The Huskies (17-33, 8-15 Mid-American Conference) and Broncos (13-33, 8-16 MAC) will also play on Friday at 2 p.m. and Saturday at noon with NIU's MAC postseason hopes on the line.

In order to qualify for the conference postseason tournament that takes the top three teams from the East and West divisions and the remaining best two league-play records, the Huskies first must sweep the Broncos, which would put them at an 11-15 mark in the MAC. With Akron (18-31, 11-13 MAC), Central Michigan (23-26, 11-13 MAC) and Eastern Michigan (20-32, 11-13 MAC) currently in a tie for the final two spots in the tournament, two additional outcomes have to happen along with a Huskie sweep for NIU to qualify. Bowling Green (26-18, 16-7 MAC), who is the current No. 1 seed, needs to sweep Akron in Bowling Green, Ohio and the Eastern Michigan versus Central Michigan series in Ypsilanti, Mich. needs to end in a sweep by either team. Those two results would then give NIU a half-game advantage over Akron and either EMU or CMU, giving NIU the final spot in the tournament and the winner of the EMU - CMU series the seventh-seed. The Huskie half-game advantage is possible because of a postponed game against Bowling Green on March 29 that will not be rescheduled.

"Our shot is exactly that," said NIU head coach Ed Mathey. "We have nobody to blame except ourselves. We have had control for the last few weeks and didn't take advantage of it. Now we have to get some help. We are going to go to Kalamazoo, fight hard and try to win some games. Our kids have been trying real hard all season."

NIU took two out of three games from the Broncos last season in DeKalb (12-11, 4-8, 8-5) on May 15-17 and swept WMU in 2007 in DeKalb again (4-1, 6-5, 10-6) on May 4-6. However, in the Huskies' last two trips to Kalamazoo they were swept by WMU (7-4, 5-4 (11), 7-2) on May 5-7, 2006 and on April 8-10, 2005 (14-3, 3-2, 16-5). The Broncos also lead the all-time series 34-23-1.

The Huskies are coming off a pair of tough losses by a combined three runs with an 8-6 loss to Ball State last Sunday and a 7-6 loss to UW-Milwaukee yesterday. As a team, NIU is hitting .287 with 326 runs, 201 walks and 44 stolen bases. Jordin Hood (Hawthorn Woods, Ill./Lake Zurich) leads the way with a .378 average, 54 runs, 70 hits, 15 doubles, nine homeruns and 13 steals, and is coming off a two-homer, career-high five RBI game. Dave Reynolds (Orland Park, Ill./Sandburg) leads the team with 44 RBI, while hitting .365 with 40 runs, 66 hits, 11 doubles and eight homers, and has a seven-game hitting streak. Alex Jones (Kansas City, Kan./Piper) has been swinging a hot bat lately as well, compiling multi-hit games in five of his last seven. Overall, he is hitting .321 29 runs, 50 hits, eight doubles, three homers, 25 RBI and eight steals.

The Broncos head into the series after losing two of three contests to Central Michigan at home (18-4, 1-9, 9-5 (10)) and losing 5-3 to Notre Dame on the road on Monday. As a team, WMU is hitting .277 with 262 runs, 147 walks and 23 steals. Kyle Galbraith leads the Bronco offense with 39 runs, 12 homers, and 19 walks. Chris Lewis leads the team with 64 hits, four triples and 35 RBI. Pedro Dager leads WMU with a .365 average and 11 doubles.

"Western Michigan is fairly explosive on offense," Mathey said. "This is a team that was picked to win the MAC West in the preseason poll. They can be a very dangerous team. We need our pitchers to establish the strike zone early and not give up free bases. We also have to make plays on defense. Western has ability and we have to respect that to work on getting some wins. We are only a half-game ahead of them in the standings so I'm sure they would love to come out on top of us this weekend. They will be ready to play."

The entire series can be followed with live stats on www.wmubroncos.com.