Kent State University
Northern Illinois
Flashes Host Huskies to Open Conference Play
3/9/2023 3:49:00 PM | Baseball
KENT- The Golden Flashes welcome in the Northern Illinois Huskies for a three-game weekend series and the Mid-American Conference opener for both teams.
Kent State comes into the series winners of six straight, matching its longest win streak since 2019. The Flashes trounced Youngstown State on Tuesday, 22-1, kicking off an eight-game homestand in record fashion. The Flashes scored the most runs in a game since scoring 31 against Bowling Green in 2012 and recorded the largest margin of victory since a 22-2 win at Xavier in 2011. Jake Casey hit two homers and drove in seven runs in the victory, the most RBI in a game since Conner Simonetti drove in eight in a win over Central Michigan in 2016.
The offense is hitting a MAC best .294 as a team and averaging nearly 9 runs per game so far through 12 games this season. It has been about balance through the lineup, five players have driven in 11 or more runs this season and four are hitting over .300.
The starting trio of Ben Cruikshank, Joe Whitman and Eric Chalus have been strong as well. The three lefties are 3-1 as a starting unit with a collective ERA of 3.08 over 46 innings and three starts each. Cruikshank and Whitman have each won MAC Pitcher of the Week this season, Cruikshank is coming off a six-shutout inning performance in the win at UT-Martin last weekend that earned him conference accolades.
Northern Illinois comes to Kent at 3-9 this season. The Huskies dropped a 5-3 decision at Minnesota on Tuesday and took two of four from Western Kentucky last weekend. NIU averages about five runs per game this season and is hitting .243 as a team. Eric Erato leads the team with a .319 average and 10 runs scored while being driven in primarily by Colin Summerhill and Aaron Harper, each with over 10 rbi so far this season.
The Huskies' pitching staff has thrown to a 6.45 earned run average with teams hitting .307 against them. Matt Salomonson has been the best starter to date for NIU, tossing 15.1 innings of 3.52 era baseball. He threw six shutout innings with seven strikeouts earlier in the year at Oral Roberts.
The two schools split a four-game series that was played in Evanston and DeKalb last season. Overall, Kent State owns a 46-24-1 all-time lead in the series. This series is scheduled to be played as single games on Friday, Saturday and Sunday with a 1 p.m. start time scheduled for Friday's opener. However, cold and winter weather are forecasted in the area this weekend, which could alter the schedule. Please see KentStateSports.com and Kent State Baseball social media for updates throughout the series.
