The University of Akron Athletics
University of Akron
Northern Illinois
Baseball Falls on Saturday to Northern Illinois, 4-1
May 10 | Baseball
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DEKALB, Ill. – The University of Akron (24-24, 11-12 MAC) baseball team fell in game two of the three-game Mid-American Conference series to Northern Illinois University (16-33, 10-13 MAC) by a score of 4-1 on Saturday afternoon at Ralph McKinzie Field.
Sophomore JT Brubaker made the start for the Zips, and turned in 5.2 innings with nine hits, four earned runs, four walks and two strikeouts for his 11th start of the season. Brubaker's record fell to 3-5 with the loss.
The Huskies bats were alive early with back-to-back RBI doubles in the bottom of the first by Joe Battaglia and Justin Fletcher to make it 2-0 NIU. Fletcher was thrown out trying to advance to third, closing out the early rally.
Both squads were silent in the second, but the Zips were able to cut the NIU lead in half in the third. Redshirt junior Matt LaRocca delivered a RBI double to left-center to score freshman James Meeker III, who led off the inning with a single, from first.
Northern Illinois regained the two-run lead on an Alex Smith RBI single to left in the bottom of the fourth, increasing the Huskies lead to 3-1.
Brubaker held NIU scoreless in the fifth, but allowed a run in the sixth to bring the game to a 4-1 Huskies lead. Brubaker was replaced by redshirt freshman Evan Jensen with two outs in the fifth. Jensen induced the final out of the inning and halted the potential rally.
Akron received strong bullpen performances from Jensen and redshirt junior Andrew Fanning. The due combined for 2.1 scoreless frames with two hits allowed, but the Zips offense couldn't string together a rally in the late innings.
Overall, UA totaled six base hits led by sophomore Kris Simonton, who registered his fifth multi-hit game in the past six contests with two hits and one steal. LaRocca had a strong day with one hit, one RBI and one walk in two official at-bats.
Northern Illinois starting pitcher Eli Anderson hurled a complete game with seven strikeouts.
The Zips and Huskies will play the rubber match of this weekend series on Sunday at 2 PM EST at Ralph McKinzie Field.
