The Northern Illinois University baseball team got a two-run walk-off home run from junior Will Couchman (Edina, Minn./NIACC) in the bottom of the ninth inning Tuesday afternoon for a 6-4 win over the Illinois State Redbirds at Ralph McKinzie Field at Walt and Janice Owens Park.

NIU (19-29) led 4-1 going into the ninth inning. Illinois State catcher Daniel Contreras led off with a single down the right field line. Max Vaisvila (Villa Park, Ill./Wabash Valley College) struck out pinch-hitter Noah Smith and got Luke Stulga to fly out for the first two outs of the inning. Kyle Gibson reached on an infield single to bring the tying run to the plate. Shai Robinson launched a three-run home run over the left centerfield wall to tie the game 4-4. Vaisvila bounced back to get Daniel Pacella to ground out to end the frame.

“Max was so good up to that point,” said head coach Ryan Copeland. “He got into a bad count against a really talented hitter and he got us. We stayed with Max to face Pacella and he got him out to give us a chance to get to the bottom of the ninth tied. It didn’t feel like we had to overcome a deficit.”

Gavin Baldwin (Nashville, Ill./SEMO) led off the bottom of the ninth with a bloop single to left center, his third hit of the game. JP Gauthier (De Pere, Wis./Illinois State) then hit a fielder’s choice with Robinson getting pinch-runner Jalen House (Downers Grove, Ill./Downers Grove South) out at second base. Couchman then stepped up and hit a home run over the left field wall to win the game for NIU, 6-4. It was Couchman’s second walk-off hit of the year, hitting a walk-off home run in the Huskies’ 5-4 win over Akron on April 18.

“It was a really great effort today,” Copeland said. “Will picked us up for the second time this year with one swing of the bat. We did what we do, we hit balls up in the air, we hit home runs. Today we played defense and pitched the heck out of it and got a good win against a pretty good team.”

The Huskies got off to a fast start, taking a 1-0 lead on Logan Gregorio’s (Naperville, Ill./Benedictine) 17^th home run of the season. Starting pitcher Mason Ruh (Milwaukee, Wis./Wisconsin Lutheran) was locked in early, allowing one hit in the first three innings. He struck out the first two Illinois State batters of the game and had a pair of strikeouts in the third inning.

Illinois State (22-24) threatened to get on the board in the fourth. Back-to-back base hits from Pacella and Judah Morris gave the Redbirds runners at the corners with one out. Ruh got designated hitter Brayden Bakes to fly out to Gauthier in right field and Graham Mastros to foul out to Baldwin to end the frame.

NIU started the bottom of the fourth with a bang as Baldwin and Gauthier hit back-to-back home runs over the left field wall to make the score 3-0. Couchman then drew a walk, getting to third base on a Ben Loyd (Pleasant Prairie, Wis./Kaskaskia College) double. After a foulout, Kayden Jennings (Edwardsville, Ill./Edwardsville) reached on a bunt that scored Couchman and put the Huskies up 4-0.

Vaisvila entered the game on the mound in the top of the fifth and stranded a leadoff single while striking out two batters. Illinois State got on the board in the top of the sixth inning on a Judah Morris solo home run. The Redbirds nearly took the lead in the seventh. Illinois State loaded the bases with two outs on back-to-back singles from Luke Stulga and Kyle Gibson as well as a Robinson walk. Vaisvile struck out Pacella to end the inning, his fourth strikeout of the game.

“Max and Mason pitched so well today,” said Copeland. “We believe in Max despite the numbers and some of the struggles. We owe it to him to figure out how best to use him because he’s a left-handed arm that throws three pitches for strikes.”

Vaisvila had six strikeouts in five innings of relief. Ruh threw four scoreless innings, allowing three hits with no walks and five strikeouts. The Huskies hit four home runs on the day to give them 80 for the season. Gregorio is now two home runs away from tying Colin Summerhill’s single-season record of 19 set last season. He is also six RBI away from tying Scott Simon’s single-season record of 71 in 2004. Baldwin’s home run was his 15^th of the year.

NIU hosts Toledo for a three-game Mid-American Conference Series beginning Friday, May 9^th at 3 p.m.