Comebacks Fall Just Short as NIU Walks Off with 8-7 Win

Sunday, April 16

DeKalb, IL

1:00 PM

Kent State University

19-12, 7-2

Northern Illinois University

10-25, 6-6

Kent State

Northern Illinois

Photo by: Bob Christy

Comebacks Fall Just Short as NIU Walks Off with 8-7 Win

4/16/2017 6:20:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

DEKALB, Ill. – Kent State (19-12, 7-2) staged two comebacks but could not pull off the sweep of Northern Illinois (10-25, 6-6) in an 8-7 loss Sunday afternoon.

The Huskies went ahead with a run in the opening inning. A walk, stolen base and single caused the tally.

The Flashes responded in the next inning as Reilly Hawkins led off the 2^nd with a triple and scored on a sacrifice fly by Dom Iero. However, Northern Illinois scored two in the bottom of the frame and added another in the 4^th to lead 4-1.

Kent State's first comeback started with a two-run 6^th inning. Pete Schuler was hit by a pitch, Iero singled and Hollander singled, which allowed Schuler to come home when an error occurred on the play. Later, after a sacrifice bunt by Nick Kanavas, Mason Mamarella hit a sacrifice fly to score Iero and make the deficit just one run.

The Golden Flashes tied the game in the 7^th when Hawkins singled and Iero doubled him home. They grabbed the lead on a sacrifice fly by Kanavas.

That 5-4 lead was short-lived as the Huskies scored twice in the bottom of the frame to go back up by one run. But, the Flashes were resilient, tying the game and then getting the lead back in the 8^th. Luke Burch started things off with a single and Dylan Rosa walked for Schuler to pick up a RBI base hit. Iero reached on an error during the next at-bat to allow Rosa to score and put the Flashes up 7-6.

As the game would go, Northern Illinois was not done yet, either. A solo homerun tied the game at eight in the 8^th before the Huskies put together a single, sacrifice bunt and another base hit to walk off with two outs in the bottom of the 9^th with a 8-7 win.

Joey Murray went just 2.1 innings in the start and was followed by Connor Wollersheim who threw 3.2 innings. Zach Spangler went 1.0 shutout inning with one hit, one walk and one strikeout. Austin Havekost threw 1.1 frames while Robert Zeigler finished the game on the mound.

Burch, Hawkins, Iero and Josh Hollander all had two hits on the day while Iero led the team with two RBI.

The Golden Flashes will travel to Youngstown State on Tuesday for a 5 p.m. game and to Pittsburgh on Wednesday for a 6 p.m. game before returning home next weekend for a three-game set with Toledo.