Kent State University
Northern Illinois University
Kent State Resumes MAC Play this Weekend at NIU
4/13/2017 10:17:00 AM | Baseball
The Golden Flashes (17-11, 5-1) will look to get back on track this weekend as they travel to Northern Illinois (9-23, 5-4) for a three-game Mid-American Conference series. Game times are set for 2 p.m. EST on Friday, 2 p.m. EST on Saturday and 1 p.m. EST on Sunday (1 p.m., 1 p.m. and noon local time).
COVERAGE
• Watch all three games at niuhuskies.com/watch
• Listen to Ty Linder on Golden Flashes iHeart Radio
• Live stats will run at sidearmstats.com/niu/baseball
PROBABLE STARTING PITCHERS
Friday, April 14
Kent State: #31 LHP Eli Kraus (5-2, 3.74 ERA, 33 SO, 12 BB, 7 GS, 43.1 IP)
NIU: #30 RHP Joe Hawks (3-3, 3.50 ERA, 46 SO, 17 BB, 8 GS, 43.2 IP)
Saturday, April 15
Kent State: #23 RHP Zach Willeman (4-3, 6.19 ERA, 34 SO, 16 BB, 7 GS, 36.1 IP)
NIU: #29 RHP Nathan Thomas (2-2, 4.85 ERA, 27 SO, 19 BB, 5 GS, 29.2 IP)
Sunday, April 16
Kent State: #30 RHP Joey Murray (4-0, 1.70 ERA, 55 SO, 14 BB, 7 GS, 37.0 IP)
NIU: #5 RHP Donovin Sims (3-2, 4.37 ERA, 22 SO, 12 BB, 8 GS, 45.1 IP)
THE MATCHUP
• Kent State is 35-18-1 all-time against Northern Illinois
• The two teams did not meet last season, but the Flashes traveled to DeKalb for three games in 2015
• They swept the Huskies by winning 16-4, 7-4 and 10-3
• Kent State also took the series in 2014 by winning two out of three at home
• The last time Northern Illinois took the series was when they won two out of three at home in 2008
• In 2008, after losing the first two games, Kent State's game three win started a 12-game win streak
• The Huskies are batting .244 and have a team ERA of 5.33 this season
• Northern Illinois opened conference play with a sweep at Toledo, then took two out of three from Bowling Green
• Most recently, they lost two out of three at Buffalo
STAT REPORT
• Kent State continues to swing the bat well this season as its .316 average is the 11th highest in the nation while the team is 28th in slugging percentage
• On the mound, the Flashes rank 21st in shutouts, 43rd in strikeout-to-walk ratio and 26th in strikeouts per nine innings
• Individually, Luke Burch is 2nd in the country in hits per game and 14th in batting average
• Joey Murray ranks 7th in strikeouts per nine innings
THE BIG INNING
• Giving up five or more runs in a single inning to the opponent has been hard to overcome for the Flashes this season
• In the last three games, all losses, the opponents have had a five-run frame
• Four of the last five games have had a big inning for Kent State's foes, resulting in dropping all four of those contests
• Kent State has only given up five or more runs in an inning once before this season, in a loss to College of Charleston
• Those five games make up nearly half the team's losses this year
• On the other side of that, the Golden Flashes have had just seven games this season where they have not had nine or more hits
• Six of those seven have been losses
