Fresh off a 2-1 win over Purdue on Tuesday, the Northern Illinois University baseball team opens a four-game homestand this weekend with a Mid-American Conference series against the Ohio Bobcats at Ralph McKinzie Field at Walt & Janice Owens Park.

Friday’s game has been moved up to 1 p.m. CT due to the potential for rain in the early evening. Saturday’s 2 p.m. game and Sunday’s 1 p.m. game will be played as scheduled. Fans arriving at Saturday’s game can receive a free black rally towel for the Blackout game. Sunday is Kids Day with a postgame Run The Bases sponsored by Raising Canes.

NIU (10-17, 1-8 MAC) held Purdue eight runs below their season average on Tuesday at Alexander Field. The Huskies’ pitchers racked up 11 strikeouts while holding the Boilermakers to one run on six hits. It was the ninth time this season NIU pitching had double-digit strikeouts.

Senior outfielder JP Gauthier (De Pere, Wis./Illinois State) drove in both runs in the Huskies’ win on Tuesday, their second in a row over a Big Ten program. Gauthier is currently on a nine-game hitting streak, posting an .886 slugging percentage with six doubles and four home runs. He has driven in 11 runs over that span, nine of which have come in the last five games. Gauthier had a career-high two home runs and four hits in NIU’s 17-10 win at Butler last Friday.

NIU is tied with Ball State and Miami for the MAC lead in home runs with 43. Gavin Baldwin (Nashville, Ill./SEMO) and Logan Gregorio (Naperville, Ill./Benedictine) are the only set of teammates in the conference to have double-digit home runs with both launching 10. Baldwin and Gregorio both hit their 10^th home runs of the season last Sunday at Butler. Gregorio is fourth in the MAC in RBI with 34, driving in 10 runs in the last seven games. Baldwin is tied for fifth with 33 RBI. He had five RBI in last weekend’s series at Butler.

Ohio (7-20, 3-9 MAC) is coming off a 4-3 loss to Morehead State on Tuesday. The Bobcats took one out of three games at Eastern Michigan last weekend. Sophomore outfielder Ben Slanker is second in the MAC with 12 home runs and third in RBI with 37. Freshman Matt Iniech is the MAC’s leader in batting average at .456 which puts him 10^th in the country. The Huskies took two games out of three in last season’s series at Ohio.

The Huskies wrap up their four-game homestand on Tuesday, April 8 with a 2 p.m. game against Eastern Illinois. NIU rallied in the ninth inning on March 25 for a 15-14 win over the Panthers in Charleston.