2011 NIU Schedule Northern Illinois Baseball Notes: Games 27-29 Date Opponent Time February The Mound Matchups 18 at Southern Utah L, 6-3 | L, 7-5 19 at Southern Utah Cancelled Fri., April 8 @ 3:05 p.m. CT vs. Miami (Ohio) at Ralph McKinzie Field 25 vs. Brigham Young % L, 3-2 RHP Zach Oates (2-4 | 3.83 ERA) vs. RHP Mac Thoreson (2-2 | 2.03 ERA) 26 vs. Brigham Young % L, 15-3 at Texas Tech L, 8-5 27 at Texas Tech L, 14-8 Sat.., April 9 @ 1:05 p.m. CT vs. Miami (Ohio) at Ralph McKinzie Field March LHP Tom Barry (2-1 | 4.15 ERA) vs. LHP Tyler Melling (5-0 | 2.85 ERA) ASU Coca-Cola Classic (at Surprise Stadium) 3 vs. Air Force ^ L, 10-8 4 vs. Arizona State ^ L, 10-9 Sun., April 10 @ 1:05 p.m. CT vs. Miami (Ohio) at Ralph McKinzie Field 5 vs. California-Riverside ^ L, 14-6 RHP Jeremy Gonzales (3-4 | 5.26 ERA) vs. T.B.A. 6 vs. Calif. State Bakersfi eld ^ L, 6-1 13 AURORA Postponed 15 vs. North Dakota $ Cancelled Northern Illinois Miami 16 vs. Western Illinois $ Cancelled Overall: ..............................11-15 Overall: ..............................15-14 vs. North Dakota $ W, 4-0 at Saint Louis W, 7-3 Conference:............................4-2 Conference:............................4-2 17 vs. Illinois + W, 3-0 Home: ....................................3-4 Home: ....................................6-2 18 vs. Illinois # W, 15-14 Away: .....................................5-4 Away: .....................................4-5 19 at Southern Illinois W, 7-5 Neutral: ..................................3-7 Neutral: ..................................5-7 20 vs. Saint Louis # L, 7-1 Streak: .................................. W 1 Streak: .................................. W 2 25 BOWLING GREEN * L, 7-2 Last 5: ....................................4-1 Last 5: ....................................3-2 26 BOWLING GREEN * L, 8-0 Last 10: ..................................6-4 Last 10: ..................................7-3 27 BOWLING GREEN * W, 3-0 29 CHICAGO STATE W, 20-5 Head Coach Ed Mathey Head Coach Dan Simonds 30 AURORA L, 7-6 Overall (17 years): ..... 426-420-3 Overall (6 years): ...........147-159 April 2 at Buffalo * W, 9-4 NIU (8 years): ............ 221-249-1 MU (5 years): ................128-124 at Buffalo * W, 12-4 3 at Buffalo * W, 7-0 Game Coverage 5 ILLINOIS STATE L, 7-4 6 BRADLEY W, 8-5 All three games will have live stats via GameTracker available on NIUHuskies.com. 8 MIAMI (OHIO) * 3:05 PM 9 MIAMI (OHIO) * 1:05 PM The Leadoff 10 MIAMI (OHIO) * 1:05 PM 12 at Illinois State 4:30 pm After splitting a pair of games with Missouri Valley Conference and Illinois foes Illinois State (L, 7-4) 13 at Chicago State 3:00 pm and Bradley (W, 8-5) this week, the Huskies look to fi nish their fi ve-game home stand on a positive 15 at Ohio * 5 pm note against Miami (Ohio). Both teams enter with a 4-2 record in Mid-American Conference play 16 at Ohio * 2 pm and are coming off opposite results in their last MAC series. The Huskies, who are 11-5 in their last 17 at Ohio * 12 pm 16 contests, swept Buffalo on the road while Miami lost two of three at home to Ball State. 19 at Northwestern 3:00 pm 22 TOLEDO * 3:05 PM 23 TOLEDO * 1:05 PM The Weather.com forecast for the games calls for temperatures in the high 60s and partly sunny 24 TOLEDO * 1:05 PM with a 40 percent chance of showers each day. 26 at Bradley 6 pm 27 MILWAUKEE & 6:05 PM The All-Time Series 29 at Central Michigan * 3 pm Miami holds a 26-11-1 lead against NIU and won two of three in Oxford, Ohio, last season on April 30 at Central Michigan * 2 pm May 9-11. However, the Huskies won the fi nale of the series, 5-4. 1 at Central Michigan * 1 pm 3 VALPARAISO 3:05 PM Double Vision 4 at Illinois-Chicago 7:05 pm NIU’s sweep of Buffalo on the road came with two rare feats. The Huskies swept a road double- 6 at Eastern Michigan * 5 pm header for the second time since 2008 and swept a road MAC series for the third time since 2003. 7 at Eastern Michigan * 2 pm 8 at Eastern Michigan * 12 pm Fittingly, the last time the Huskies swept a road MAC series was in the same place they did it this 13 BALL STATE * 3:05 PM past weekend -- at St. Bonaventure’s McGraw-Jennings Field on March 22-23, 2008. 14 BALL STATE * 1:05 PM 15 BALL STATE * 1:05 PM Mound Matadors 17 at Milwaukee 3:05 PM Starting pitchers Zach Oates, Tom Barry, and Jeremy Gonzalez tamed the Buffalo Bulls offense last 19 at Western Michigan * 2 pm weekend. The Huskie hurlers combined to limit UB to two earned runs over 21 innings of work. 20 at Western Michigan* 2 pm 21 at Western Michigan * 12 pm Etch-A-Sketch 25-28 MAC Tournament TBA Joe Etcheverry is drawing up quite a 2011 season for the Huskies. The senior fi rst baseman is cur- June rently pacing the team with a .329 average and earned his fi rst career MAC West Division Player of 3-5 NCAA Regionals TBA the Week award this week, the fourth such honor for the Huskies in 2011. The Bakersfi eld, Calif., 10-13 NCAA Super Regionals TBA native hit .588 (10-for-17), along with posting a slugging percentage of .941, .708 on-base percentage, 17-26 NCAA World Series TBA six runs, six walks, three doubles, three RBI, one homer and steal. Home games in BOLD ALL CAPS, played at Ralph Walking to Victory McKinzie Field. *MAC Game. All times Central. Schedule Subject to Change. % at Lubbock, Texas. The Huskies tied a team game record by walking 14 times in a 20-5 win over Chicago State Tuesday, ^ at Surprise, Ariz. $ at St. Louis, Mo. + at Marion, as NIU nearly had more walks than hits (16) en route to scoring a season-high runs. Of the 14 free Ill. # at Carbondale, Ill. & at Geneva, Ill. Head Coach Ed Mathey passes, six came around to score. The last time the Huskies achieved the feat was against Eastern Michigan on April 19, 1998. North Central Gaga for Gonzo (1986) Down 2-0 in the MAC opening series against Bowling Green, Jeremy Gonzales spear-headed a three-man shutout by throwing seven innings and allowing just four hits and one walk with six Eight Years at NIU: strikeouts, tying a season high, in salvaging a 3-0 win on March 27. 221-249-1 Gonzales was faced with the opposite situation in his last start on Sunday, up 2-0 in the MAC series against Buffalo. He responded by completing the sweep with eight innings of scoreless ball, allow- 17-Year Career: ing four hits and four walks with fi ve strikeouts to win his third game in his last four starts. During 426-420-3 the four-game stretch, Gonzales has a minimal 1.54 ERA as he has allowed just four earned runs on 15 hits and 15 walks with 17 strikeouts in his last 23.1 innings, holding opponents to just two extra Entering his ninth season at the helm of Northern base hits (two doubles) and a .185 batting average. Illinois baseball, Ed Mathey continues to leave an indelible mark on the program. NIU’s all-time No Longer Shutout by Shutouts coaching victories leader (221-249-1) has produced In Sunday’s 7-0 win over Buffalo, the Huskies notched their fourth shutout of the season. Prior to the four highest win totals in school history, along the fi rst shutout of the year on March 16 against North Dakota, NIU had gone 108 games between with helping 24 former players earn professional contracts since arriving in 2003. In his collegiate shutouts. Now, the Huskies have four over their last 16 games. The second came in a 3-0 over Il- coaching tenure, the 17-year veteran has led his linois on March 17 and the third came on March 27 in a 3-0 victory versus Bowling Green. teams to a multitude of unprecedented team ac- complishments and individual accolades. With Luck of the Irish over 400 wins (426-420-3), Mathey has helped The Huskies are 2-0 with the luck of the green jerseys they donned in honor of St. Patrick’s Day. produce 54 all-conference selections, 31 profes- Even better, NIU has not given up a run yet. The fi rst win came on March 17 at Rent One Park in sional players, 18 all-region selections, seven MLB draft picks and seven All-Americans. Marion, Ill., against Illinois. The second was Sunday at home over Bowling Green. Both games were won 3-0 by NIU. On March 17, the Huskies wore green jerseys and hats to celebrate St. Patrick’s Mathey has elevated NIU’s presence in the Mid- Day. Sunday, NIU held a silent auction for the green jerseys at Fatty’s Pub & Grille in DeKalb after American Conference since his arrival. He made the win against the Falcons. The successful event’s proceeds went directly to the NIU baseball a splash right away by winning a school-record program. 34 games, 15 in MAC play, in 2003. He followed with 31 and 14, respectively in 2004 to be named MAC Awards Sweep Week Pitch & Hit Club of Chicago’s Collegiate Coach of the Year.