Pitchers Adam Brouwer (Tinley Park, Ill./Illinois-Springfield) and Danny Cihocki (Princeton, Ill./Lake Land College) combined to scatter seven hits on Friday as the Northern Illinois University baseball team shut out the Ohio Bobcats 5-0 at Ralph McKinzie Field at Walt & Janice Owens Park.

 “The challenge was to take the momentum from a good win on Tuesday against a really good Purdue team and carry that into a home conference series,” said head coach Ryan Copeland. “It all starts with our starting pitching and defense. Adam pitched like a real Friday starter. We did just enough offensively to put the game out of reach and give us an opportunity to win the series tomorrow.”

 Brouwer went seven innings to win his second consecutive start. The junior allowed five hits with no walks and three strikeouts. Just like Tuesday in NIU’s win at Purdue, Cihocki went the final two innings without giving up a run. He struck out three Bobcats while allowing two hits and a walk.

 NIU (11-17, 2-8 MAC) and Ohio were locked in a pitcher’s duel early. Brouwer and Ohio starting pitcher Blake Gaskey both threw three scoreless innings to start the game. The Huskies got their first hit of the game in the bottom of the fourth on a leadoff single from Will Couchman (Edina, Minn./NIACC). Gaskey then hit JP Gauthier (De Pere, Wis./Illinois State) with a pitch. Ben Loyd (Pleasant Prairie, Wis./Kaskaskia College) moved the runners into scoring position with a sacrifice bunt. After a lineout for the second out, Cooper Cohn (McHenry, Ill./McHenry) laced a single to left field to drive in both runs and put the Huskies up 2-0.

 “Cooper gives us a different element near the bottom of the order,” Copeland said. “He can drive the ball, hit some doubles. That hit was big for us with two outs. He picked us up and that’s what you need in conference games.”

 Ohio (7-21, 3-10 MAC) threatened to get on the board in the top of the fifth. With two outs and Blake Reed at first, Cameron Bryant hit a single through the right side that sent Reed to third. Brouwer stranded the runners on base by getting Trenton Neuer to fly out to Gauthier in right field.

 Charlie Parcell (Des Plaines, Ill./Maine West) led off the bottom of the fifth with a double, and got to third on an errant pickoff attempt by Gaskey. Logan Gregorio (Naperville, Ill./Benedictine) doubled the Huskies’ lead with a towering two-run home run to right center, his 11^th of the year, to make the score 4-0. The junior also drove in an insurance run in the eighth on a groundout to put NIU ahead 5-0.

 The Huskies had eight hits in the game and drew four walks. Parcell was 2-for-3 with a walk and a hit by pitch. Gauthier was 1-for-1 with two walks, reaching on a single in the fifth to extend his current hitting streak to 10 games.

 The two teams play the middle game of this weekend’s series on Saturday, April 5 at 2 p.m. Saturday’s game is a Blackout game and fans can receive a black rally towel at the ballpark entrance.