The Northern Illinois University baseball team hit four home runs to set a new team single-season record with 73 but the Huskies fell 18-15 to Milwaukee on Tuesday afternoon despite a seven-run rally in the ninth.

CJ Cepicky (St. Louis, Mo./Vianney) hit a pair of home runs, while Gavin Baldwin (Nashville, Ill./Nashville Community) and Kayden Jennings (Edwardsville, Ill./Edwardsville) each had a round-tripper, as the Huskies broke the previous school single-season record of 70, set in 2003.

“Our guys fight, they play hard for nine innings,” said NIU head coach Ryan Copeland. “So, I’m not surprised that we were able to fight and crawl ourselves back in that game. Ultimately, we did enough to have the lead run at the plate in Kyle (Hartmann). So, we finished on a positive note, but it goes without saying that we need to be much better earlier in the game.”

NIU (16-28) would bring the potential go-ahead run to the plate in the ninth as the Huskies scored seven runs and collected eight hits.

Baldwin homered, his 14th of the season, to begin the frame. With two on, Kyle Hartmann (Sycamore, Ill./Sycamore) lined into double play before Jennings hit his first career home run, a two-run shot down the left field line.

Cepicky made it back-to-back home runs with his seventh of the season to cut the Milwaukee lead to 18-11.

Logan Gregorio (Naperville, Ill./Waubonsie Valley) then doubled and scored on a single by JP Gauthier (De Pere, Wis./De Pere). A triple from Will Couchman (Edina, Minn./Edina) scored Gauthier and a Baldwin single scored Couchman, cutting the Panther lead to 18-15.

Following a single by Ben Loyd (Pleasant Prairie, Wis./Tremper), Milwaukee brought in its closer, Logan Snow. He walked Cooper Cohn (McHenry, Ill./McHenry) to load the bases before getting a strike out to end the Huskie threat in the ninth.

After Loyd drew a based loaded walk in the top of the first to give the Huskies an early lead, Milwaukee (15-27) scored in each of the first five frames as the Panthers led 16-2 after the fifth.

Following a two-out double by Jennings in the sixth, Cepicky tied the single-season school home run record with a two-run shot for his sixth of the year.

“That’s something we identified pretty early on after taking over the program,” said Copeland of his team’s home run hitting prowess. “We wanted to be more physical and be able to hit the ball up in the air for doubles and home runs. That’s the way college baseball has gone and the teams that have the most success offensively, they are hitting the ball out of the ballpark, so that has been very intentional by us as a staff.

“When those guys arrive on campus, Coach (Joe) Kelch does a great job working with them, getting them to have the right approach, making in-game adjustments, working with them on their swings and challenging them during practice to put them in a position where we feel like nobody’s fastball is too hard for us and nobody had too good of a breaking ball that we can’t figure out a way to stay on the barrel. So, cool program record, unfortunately we weren’t able to do that in a win.”

The Panthers added a run in the seventh to take a 17-4 lead before the Huskies scored four runs in the eighth.

Loyd doubled to open the eighth and later scored on a passed ball. Hartmann had an RBI single and Gauthier doubled to left to score a pair. In the bottom of the inning, Milwaukee added another run as they took an 18-8 lead into the ninth.

Gauthier and Baldwin each had three hits and drove in three runs in the contest. Cepicky also had three RBI, going 2-for-3 with his two home runs.

For Milwaukee, Tyler Bickers went 5-for-6 with six RBI and three doubles. Charlie Marion and Caden Headlee each had three hits for the Panthers.

NIU will return to action this weekend as the Huskie head to Ypsilanti, Mich., for a three-game set against Eastern Michigan beginning on Friday, May 2, at 2 p.m. CT.