The Northern Illinois University baseball team’s senior class made sure they went out as winners on Saturday afternoon, contributing to the Huskies’ 9-8 win on Senior Day at Ralph McKinzie Field at Walt and Janice Owens Park.
“This series was three pretty good games and both teams showed a lot of toughness,” said head coach Ryan Copeland. “We were both trying to end our seasons on a high note. It wasn’t easy, but we found a way to win. We always found the way to get that last pitch, that big hit. You’re just hoping the seniors in their final game here make a difference, and a couple of them did.”
Eastern Michigan (14-38, 9-21) broke a 3-3 tie with four runs in the top of the seventh. The Huskies responded with two runs in the bottom of the inning. Mason Kelley (Mt. Washington, Ky./Schoolcraft College) led off with a double down the left field line. Christian Seegers (Schaumburg, Ill./Creighton) followed with a walk. After a flyout, Andre Demetral (Rochester, Mich./Florence Darling Tech) reached on an infield single to load the bases. Colin Summerhill (Chicago, Ill./Troy) followed with a potential double play ball, but EMU second baseman Cory Taylor’s relay to first was wild and two runs scored to make the score 7-5.
NIU (21-33, 14-16 MAC) got a scoreless eighth inning from freshman Alex Day (Tinley Park, Ill./Andrew) that included back-to-back strikeouts. The Huskies rallied in the bottom of the inning, starting with back-to-back one-out singles from Charlie Parcell (Des Plaines, Ill./Maine West) and Spencer Bartel (Sun Prairie, Wis./Madison College), who got a hit in his final at-bat as a Huskie and was pinch-ran for by JP Gauthier (De Pere, Wis./Illinois State). A wild pitch allowed Parcell to score from third and advanced Gauthier to second.
The Huskies loaded the bases on an Eric Erato (Sussex, Wis./Sussex Hamilton) and Seegers being hit by a pitch. With two outs, Demetral hit a single to centerfield that drove home two runs and put NIU up 8-7. Eastern Michigan intentionally walked Summerhill to load the bases for Jake Nelson (Altoona, Wis./Madison College). Reliever Mat Sanfilipo then hit Nelson with a pitch to bring an insurance run around to score and make the total 9-7.
“There were a handful of big hits, big walks in front of me to give me that opportunity,” Demetral said. “I was trying to relax and get back to what I was doing and thankfully came up with the knock there. It was a lot of fun.”
The Eagles made one last attempt at a rally in the ninth. Brendan Kleiman led off with a home run over the left field fence to make the score 9-8. Taylor followed with a double to put the tying run in scoring position with no outs. Senior Reagan Klawiter (Verona, Wis./Madison College) entered the game from the bullpen for the 34th and final time this season. He retired Kyle Schroedle on a groundout to Demetral at shortstop for the first out with Taylor advancing to third. Klawiter then struck out Logan Milene for the second out. Evan Sines then hit a deep fly ball to left field which CJ Cepicky (St. Louis, Mo./Missouri) caught at the warning track to end the game and lock up the series sweep.
“This was how the season was supposed to end, with your seniors that have been in this program for awhile finding a way to win it,” Copeland said.
Eastern Michigan took a 3-1 lead after three innings. NIU closed within a run in the bottom of the fourth on an Aaron Harper (Hemet, Calif./Mt. St. Jacinto CC) sacrifice fly. Seniors Jackson Stewart (Urbandale, Iowa/Des Moines Area CC), RJ Nowicki (Hoffman Estates, Ill./Barrington) and Jacob Draeger (Johnston, Iowa/Des Moines Area CC) combined for a scoreless top of the fifth out of the bullpen. A Summerhill two-out double in the fifth tied the game at 3-3.
Summerhill finished his career going 3-for-4 on Saturday with two RBI. Demetral and Bartel both had a pair of hits. Erato scored two runs and drew a walk in his 201st career game at NIU. Klawiter earned his first career save on Saturday in the final relief appearance of his career.
The Huskies finished the season with a record of 21-33 and 14-16 in the Mid-American Conference, an 11-win improvement from 2023 with a nine-win improvement in MAC play alone.
“This is a good year to build upon,” said Copeland. “My hope for the program is much bigger than this. I love to win and I want to get to the point where if we have a 21-win season, it’s not a good year. To take the same group and more than double our win total and finish where we did in the MAC, knowing we let a couple games slip, shows we had some proud moments and some opportunities we let slip. There were a lot of games where we could have folded and we didn’t. It makes me really excited for the future of Huskie Baseball.”