The Northern Illinois University baseball team lost 6-5 Wednesday afternoon at Franklin Field against the Milwaukee Panthers.
NIU (15-29) had a chance to break a 5-5 tie in the eighth inning. Aaron Harper (Hemet, Calif./Mt. St. Jacinto CC) led off with a single to centerfield. After a strikeout Eric Erato (Sussex, Wis./Sussex Hamilton) drew a four-pitch walk. Milwaukee reliever Keagon Kaufmann struck out Jake Nelson (Altoona, Wis./Madison College) for the second out and got Colin Summerhill (Chicago, Ill./Troy) to fly out to end the threat.
Milwaukee (14-28) got its first two batters on base in the bottom half of the eighth. Q Phillips struck out but advanced to first base on a wild pitch. Evan Baptiste then drew a walk. Andrew Chapman put down a sacrifice bunt to move the runners into scoring position for the first out with Gabe Roessler hitting a sacrifice fly to right to score Phillips and put the Panthers up 6-5. The Huskies did get the tying run on base in the ninth on a CJ Cepicky (St. Louis, Mo./Missouri) walk but Johnny Kelliher struck out the final two batters he faced to lock up the win.
“We did a good job early of taking what they gave us early on, but we were not able to capitalize on them,” said head coach Ryan Copeland. “We took our share of walks and hit by pitches but just didn’t get the big hit. We’ve had opportunities this year to go take games away from other teams and it seems like we’re not doing that enough.”
NIU loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the first as Milwaukee starting pitcher Tyler Deleskiewicz hit Erato and Nelson with pitches, then walked Summerhill. A wild pitch allowed all the runners to advance with Erato scoring the first run of the day. Deleskiewicz struck out the side to get out of the inning.
Milwaukee (14-28) responded in the bottom of the first. With two runners on and one out, Carson Hansen hit a three-run home run over the right center wall to give the Panthers a 3-1 lead. The Huskies loaded the bases again with no outs in the second. An Erato sacrifice fly drove in Mason Kelley (Mt. Washington, Ky./Schoolcraft College) to make the score 3-2. Nelson tied the game with a base hit up the middle that brought in Harper. Summerhill put NIU back in front with an infield single that scored Andre Demetral (Rochester, Mich./Florence Darling Tech) and put NIU up 4-3.
Ryan Linkletter (McHenry, Ill./Iowa Central CC) kept NIU in the lead, stranding two runners on base in the bottom of the second with a pair of strikeouts. The Panthers tied the game with two outs in the bottom of the third. Sean Tillmon reached base on a single to centerfield. Phillips followed with a triple to right field to make the score 4-4. Conner Lutes (Libertyville, Ill./Libertyville) entered the game from the NIU bullpen in the bottom of the fourth and held Milwaukee scoreless in that inning and the fifth. He stranded a runner at third in the fifth after a three-base error.
The Huskies took back the lead in the top of the sixth. Demetral led off with a base hit off of Milwaukee reliever James Severson. Erato then ripped a double down the right field line to give NIU runners at the corners with no outs. Nelson drove in Demetral with a sacrifice fly to give NIU a 5-4 lead. Lutes worked around a two-out single by Roessler in the bottom of the inning to keep the Huskies ahead. The Panthers tied the game in the bottom of the seventh. Lutes hit Hansen with a pitch with one out. He then tried to pick off Hansen at first but his throw went into foul territory, allowing Hansen to get all the way to third base. A Zach Lane sacrifice fly drove in Hansen and drew Milwaukee level 5-5.
The top of the NIU batting order – Erato, Nelson and Summerhill – combined to go 4-for-9 with four runs batted in. Summerhill was 2-for-3 with two walks as the Huskies drew 11 free passes via walk or hit by pitch. Lutes allowed one unearned run in four innings of relief.
The Huskies open a three-game series against Ball State on Friday, May 3 at 3 p.m. at Ralph McKinzie Field at Walt and Janice Owens Park.