NIU Baseball Opens Home Slate Against Bowling Green This Weekend

Posted By: Peyton
April 4, 2024 @ 4:03 pm
NIU Sports

After almost two months straight on the road, the Northern Illinois University baseball team takes the field at Ralph McKinzie Field at Walt and Janice Owens Park this weekend against the Bowling Green Falcons.

The series begins on Friday, April 5 at 3 p.m. with Saturday’s game at 2 p.m. and Sunday’s series finale at 1 p.m. Admission to NIU baseball games is free. Friday’s game is NIU Club Day. Saturday is DeKalb County Day and Greek Day. Sunday is Family Day with a Kids Zone and the Victor E. Huskie Egg Hunt following the game.

NIU (10-18, 6-6 MAC) surpassed it’s Mid-American Conference win total from last season with a 5-3 win at Toledo on March 30 to take the final game of last weekend’s series. Redshirt-Sophomore Adam Brouwer (Tinley Park, Ill./Illinois-Springfield) earned his third straight win on the mound, allowing two runs on five hits in six innings with four strikeouts. In four MAC starts, Brouwer is 3-0 with a 1.50 earned run average. In 24 conference innings Brouwer has struck out 20 batters while allowing 15 hits.

Senior outfielder Eric Erato (Sussex, Wis./Sussex Hamilton) enters the weekend having reached base safely in 15 consecutive games with a hit in six straight games. Erato leads NIU with a .361 batting average which puts him seventh in the MAC. He is also tied for fourth in the league in walks with teammate Andre Demetral (Rochester, Mich./Florence Darling Tech) with 19.

Catcher Colin Summerhill (Chicago, Ill./Troy) launched two home runs last week against Northwestern and Toledo, putting him in a tie for second in the MAC this season with nine. He leads the MAC in walks with 22. Summerhill had a hit in each of NIU’s four games last week.

Bowling Green (12-10, 9-0 MAC) enters the weekend with a perfect 9-0 league record. The Falcons took one out of three games last weekend at Xavier. Bowling Green leads the MAC in scoring at 9.7 runs per game and a team slugging percentage of .511. Senior outfielder Jack Krause is second in the MAC with a .505 on-base percentage and fifth with a .373 batting average.