The Northern Illinois University baseball team wraps up its 2025 home slate this weekend with a three-game Mid-American Conference series against the Toledo Rockets, starting Friday at 3 p.m. at Ralph McKinzie Field at Walt and Janice Owens Park.

Saturday’s 2 p.m. game is “Bark At The Park”. On Sunday, NIU will honor the 10 seniors on this year’s team at 12:30 p.m. for Senior Day ahead of a 1 p.m. first pitch. After the game kids can run the bases sponsored by Raising Canes. 

The Huskies are 7-17 in MAC play with six games remaining. NIU is four games behind the 11-13 Western Michigan Broncos who currently hold the sixth and final MAC Tournament berth.

NIU (19-29, 7-17 MAC) enters the weekend having won four of its last six games after Tuesday’s 6-4 win over Illinois State. Junior Will Couchman (Edina, Minn./NIACC) hit a two-run walk-off home run in the ninth inning, his second walk-off this season, to give the Huskies their first win over the Redbirds since 2014.

The Huskies hit four home runs in the win on Tuesday. It was the seventh time this season NIU hit four home runs in a game. The Huskies have a MAC-leading 80 home runs on the year which puts NIU 19^th in the nation. NIU is second in the MAC in runs scored with 389, the third-most in a single season in program history. The record of 408 runs was set back in 2003.

Logan Gregorio (Naperville, Ill./Benedictine) hit his 17^th home run of the season on Tuesday which moved him into a tie for the MAC lead with Ben Slanker of Ohio. He leads the conference with 65 RBI. Gregorio has the second-most home runs and RBI in a single season in NIU history. He is three home runs away from breaking Colin Summerhill’s record of 19 set last season. Scott Simon holds the single-season RBI record with 71 in 2004.

Freshman pitcher Carter Cox (St. Peters, Mo./Fort Zumwalt South) has excelled on the mound in his last three weekend starts. Cox is 2-0 with a 1.69 earned run average in those three starts, with 18 strikeouts in 16 innings. He set career-highs with nine strikeouts and six innings pitched in NIU’s 17-1 seven-inning win, allowing the one run on three hits. Cox allowed one run on four hits in five innings against Western Michigan on April 27, striking out six Broncos. 

Toledo (23-26, 12-12) enters the weekend in fourth place in the MAC after taking two out of three games against rival Bowling Green last week. The Rockets’ pitching staff leads the conference in ERA, hits allowed per nine innings and shutouts. Sophomore pitcher Jacob Tabor is fourth in the MAC with a 3.97 ERA. Charlie Scholvin leads the Rockets with a .305 batting average and a .468 on-base percentage.

NIU wraps up the regular season at Bowling Green May 15-17.