The Northern Illinois University baseball team had an early 9-5 lead on the Eastern Illinois Panthers Tuesday afternoon at Ralph McKinzie Field at Walt and Janice Owens Park, but the visitors rallied for an 18-10 victory.

NIU (12-19) opened the scoring with a three-spot in the bottom of the first. Charlie Parcell (Des Plaines, Ill./Maine West) led off by reaching on an error and stealing second base. A two-out walk by Cooper Cohn (McHenry, Ill./McHenry) kept the inning alive for Andrew Smart (Evanston, Ill./Oakton CC). The senior first baseman notched a base-hit to centerfield with the runners in motion. Eastern Illinois centerfielder Quade Peters bobbled the ball, allowing Smart to round the bases to give the Huskies a 3-0 lead.

Eastern Illinois (14-15) tied the game in the top of the second. With the bases loaded and two outs Peters hit a double to right field to clear the bases and make the score 3-3. The Panthers took the lead in the top of the third inning. EIU loaded the bases with two outs on a Pierce Bauerle walk. James Love then hit a double to left center to drive in a pair of runs to give the Panthers a 5-3 advantage. Parcell led off the bottom of the inning with a walk. After a strikeout Logan Gregorio (Naperville, Ill./Benedictine) launched his 13^th home run of the season, a two-run shot over the left centerfield wall, to tie the game 5-5.

The Huskies broke the tie in the fourth. Ben Loyd (Pleasant Prairie, Wis./Kaskaskia College) led off by reaching on an error. A Nolan Sandee (Glendale, Wis./Nicolet) walk and a two-out bunt single by Parcell loaded the bases for JP Gauthier (De Pere, Wis./Illinois State). Gauthier drove a ball deep to left field and out of the yard for a grand slam to give NIU a 9-5 lead. His slam extended his hitting streak to 13 games.

“We’ve bounced JP around the lineup and he’s taken the opportunity to be a starter for us,” said head coach Ryan Copeland. “He got a chance at Butler to earn the right field job and he’s done that. We were feeling good after his home run put us up 9-5. JP’s really been on the barrel of late and added a lot to our lineup.”

The Panthers scored twice in the fifth, as well as the sixth inning, to tie the game 9-9. EIU took back the lead in the top of the seventh as a Tyler Castro run-scoring groundout made the score 10-9. A hard bunt up the third base line by Chris Worcester drove in a run as well to give EIU an 11-9 lead. The Panthers scored two more runs in the inning, then tacked on five more in the eighth to go up 18-9.

NIU managed just two hits after the fourth inning. One of them was a Kaden Kosobucki (West De Pere, Wis./West De Pere) solo home run in the ninth that made the final score 18-10.

“If you score 10 runs, you’re probably in the top five to 10 teams in the NCAA,” Copeland said. “I’m not going to get upset with our offense. It’s hard to fight and claw when any kind of momentum you grab gets flipped because we’re struggling to get guys out on the mound. We played hard through the end but it’s hard to battle when the opponent goes on a big run like that.”

The Huskies are next in action tomorrow, Wednesday April 9, at UIC. First pitch at Curtis Granderson Stadium is at 4 p.m.