April 10, 2008

Complete Game Notes in PDF Format

Games 29-31: April 11-13
NORTHERN ILLINOIS (12-16, 5-4) vs. AKRON (14-10, 1-2)
Friday: 3 p.m. Listen; Saturday: 1 p.m. Listen; Sunday: 1 p.m.
Location: Ralph McKinzie Field, DeKalb, Ill.
Live Coverage: Broadcast on WLBK (1360 AM) and NIUHuskies.com; CSTV GameTracker on NIUHuskies.com
Series History: NIU leads 11-7; Ed Mathey vs. Akron: 7-5
Last Meeting: 2007, NIU 8-3, Akron, 5-0, NIU, 7-4 (11) at Akron
Note: The Huskies have won all three of the four series played during Ed Mathey's tenure, including both played at Ralph McKinzie Field during that span ... NIU is 7-5 over the last 12 meetings and is 4-2 in the last two home series ... Akron's last series win came in 2005 at home.

PROBABLE PITCHERS
Friday: NIU RHP Trevor Feeney (2-3, 4.47) vs. UA RHP Frank Turocy (4-1, 3.15)
Saturday: NIU LHP Adam Holdenrid (3-2, 2.31) vs. UA LHP Zach Yike (2-1, 5.24)
Sunday: NIU TBA vs. UA LHP Drew Turocy (3-1, 3.34)

SHORT HOPS
-Northern Illinois will face Notre Dame on April 16 at U.S. Cellular Field, home of the Chicago White Sox. Tickets went on sale March 24 and all proceeds will benefit the NIU February 14 Scholarship Fund. Through Wednesday, ticket sales had topped the 2,200 mark. The largest Huskie crowd on record was 4,304 in 2005 at Nebraska.
-The Huskies are 4-2 at Ralph McKinzie Field this season and are 9-3 in their last 12 games played there. NIU is 67-37-1 (.643) in games played at "The Ralph" since 2003.
-Northern Illinois has won six of its last seven series and four of its last five home series against MAC East opposition. Ed Mathey owns a 31-24 (.564) mark against East Division teams during his career.
-Huskie pitchers have held the opposition to four earned runs or less in 12 of the last 15 games. NIU is 9-6 during that stretch.
-Northern Illinois has reached the midpoint of its 56-game schedule. The Huskies improved four games during the season's second quarter, going 8-6 during that stretch after starting the year 4-10.
-The Huskies feature two players on three national award watch lists: C Matt Behren (Johnny Bench Award) and P Andy Deain (Brooks Wallace Award and Roger Clemens Award). This season marks the second consecutive season that NIU has had multiple players on national watch lists.

USKIES TO PLAY AT "THE CELL"
Northern Illinois will face Notre Dame at U.S. Cellular Field, home of the Chicago White Sox, on Wednesday, April 16 at 7 p.m. and all proceeds from tickets sales will benefit the NIU February 14 Scholarship Fund. Tickets are available for $10 lower level reserved seating at whitesox.com, Ticketmaster phone lines, Chicagoland Ticketmaster outlets, the NIU campus box office and the U.S. Cellular Field box office. Through April 9, over 2,200 tickets had been sold.

IN MEMORIUM
As a tribute to the victims of the Feb. 14 campus tragedy, Northern Illinois is wearing ribbon logo decals on the back of its batting helmets along with patches on its jerseys that feature the ribbon logo and the words "Forward, Together Forward."

WHITE SOX, ROYALS REACH OUT
As part of the Huskies season-opening trip to Arizona, the Chicago White Sox and Kansas City Royals each honored the team prior to their Feb. 27 Cactus League openers. Head coach Ed Mathey and pitcher Trevor Feeney threw out the first pitch prior to the White Sox-Rockies game in Tucson as the Sox donned NIU baseball hats during the contest. In Surprise, senior outfielders Jeff Thomas and Danny Reed threw out the first pitch prior to the Royals-Rangers game and afterwards Kansas City manager Trey Hillman and former standout Frank White spoke to the team.

SOX AUCTION RAISES $10,000
The White Sox auctioned NIU baseball items signed by a number of Sox players along with two additional autographed White Sox items with proceeds benefitting the NIU February 14 Scholarship Fund. The bids from fans for the six items totaled $7,091. Chicago White Sox Charities contributed another $2,909 for a total donation of $10,000.

HOMEGROWN TALENT
Northern Illinois has 24 Chicagoland natives on its 2008 roster, the highest concentration of Chicago-area players (83 percent) of any Division I school in Illinois. The Huskies have 26 players (90 percent) who hail from the Land of Lincoln and three non-Illinois natives who all originate from different states, including Minnesota and representation from the "sunshine states" of California and Florida.

DOWNING THE VALLEY
The Huskies have compiled a 21-14 (.600) record against Missouri Valley Conference opponents over the past six seasons, including a 3-2 (.600) mark so far in 2008. NIU has been .500 or better each season against MVC competition since 2003 while facing Southern Illinois, Bradley, Illinois State and Northern Iowa during that stretch.

LAND OF LINCOLN LEADERS
Northern Illinois is one of just three Division I Illinois schools to post three 30-plus win seasons in the past five years (with Southern Illinois and Illinois-Chicago). Along the way, the Huskies have made a habit of winning their games against intrastate opposition under Ed Mathey, compiling a sparkling 45-21 (.682) record since 2003 for the highest victory total of any Illinois team versus in-state opponents during that span. Over the past two seasons, NIU has a 23-7 (.767) record against Division I intrastate foes, including an 11-2 mark in 2006 when they notched wins over all seven Land of Lincoln opponents to claim the Illinois "state championship."

BIG TEN TRIUMPHS
With Northern Illinois' 5-4 victory over Iowa on March 26, head coach Ed Mathey improved to 7-5 against Big Ten opponents. The Huskies have won four of their last five games against Big Ten teams.

UNCAGED DANIMAL
Senior pitcher Dan Atkenson has already surpassed his previous three-year career totals this season with 28.1 innings and 30 strikeouts in 16 appearances as a key member of the Huskie pitching staff. One of the team's hardest workers, Atkenson entered the year with 12 appearances and 16.2 innings and has developed into a mainstay of the bullpen with a 2.54 ERA and a 3.3 to 1 strikeout to walk ratio. In a seven-inning game March 25 against Bradley, Atkenson hurled a "complete game" in relief by setting career highs with eight strikeouts in 7.0 innings while yielding just one run on five hits to earn the win in his first career decision.

ON A PROFESSIONAL LEVEL
Northern Illinois will play games at five different professional ballparks during the regular season with "tour stops" at Surprise (Ariz.) Stadium (Royals/Rangers Spring Training), Rent One Ballpark (Southern Illinois Miners/Marion, Ill.), Dr. Pepper Ballpark (Frisco Roughriders/Frisco, Texas), U.S. Cellular Field (Chicago White Sox) and Elfstrom Stadium (Kane County Cougars). Should the Huskies reach the MAC Tournament held at VA Memorial Stadium (Chillicothe Paints/Chillicothe, Ohio), that number will grow to six pro venues.

STAMPEDING BUFFALO
Northern Illinois set a school-record for MAC victory margin in its 17-1 rout of Buffalo on March 22. During the three-game series, NIU outscored the Bulls 33-8. Along the way, the Huskies maintained their perfect 12-0 all-time record against Buffalo.

THOU SHALT STEAL
Northern Illinois enters the week with a MAC-leading 46 stolen bases in 28 games, a total that is on pace to threaten the highest mark of the Ed Mathey era (85 in 2004). The Huskies have recorded multiple steals in five straight gamse and seven different players have stolen bases, led by Bobby Stevens' 13. Catcher Justin Behm has even become a base stealing threat, swiping three on the year after beginning his career without a steal in his first two seasons.

HEAD OF THE CLASS
According to the Perfect Game Crosschecker recruiting rankings, Northern Illinois' early signees are ranked No. 63 nationally. That ranking gives the Huskies the top-ranked class in the MAC and in the state of Illinois. NIU's class is headlined by P Kyle Stroup (Ingleside, Ill.) and also includes P Zach Badgley (McHenry, Ill.), IF Alex Beckmann (Batavia, Ill.), C Brett Frantini (Minooka, Ill.), OF/P Jake Hermsen (New London, Wisc.), P Chuck Lukanen (Elgin, Ill.) and P Chris Wakefield (Cherokee, Ga.).

ALL IN THE FAMILY
The surname Badgley is synonymous with Northern Illinois baseball as outfielder/pitcher Nick becomes the third member of the family to don the Cardinal and Black. The latest Badgley was a junior college All-American last season and succeeds brothers Dan (1997-2001) and Mark (2003-07), who both pitched for the Huskies. Younger brother Zach signed a National Letter of Intent with Northern Illinois in November and will be a freshman on the 2009 team. All told, NIU has had a Badgley on the roster every season except one (2002) since 1997, a trend that could eventually span 16 seasons when the youngster brother, Zach, is scheduled to be a senior on the 2012 squad.

BATTLE TESTED
Northern Illinois has been anything but shy when it comes to scheduling the top programs in college baseball. This season the Huskies faced No. 25 Oklahoma, two teams receiving votes in the NCBWA poll (Texas San Antonio and Dallas Baptist), and will play Notre Dame on April 16. During Ed Mathey's tenure, the Huskies have made trips to take on nationally-ranked foes Arizona State, Nebraska, Texas Tech and Florida Atlantic. Future NIU opponents include more college baseball powers with games against Mississippi State, Arizona State, Oregon State, Missouri, and USC in the next two seasons.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Ed Mathey has had 17 players sign professional contracts during his five seasons at Northern Illinois, including an active streak of five years with at least Major League affiliate signee. Most recently, pitchers Mark Badgley and Matt German signed with Florida Marlins and Philadelphia Phillies following the completion of their eligibility in 2007. Also signing professionally after his senior season a year ago was Scott Simon, who inked a contract with the Southern Illinois Miners of the independent Frontier League.

HALL OF FAME MATERIAL
The National College Baseball Hall of Fame requested a bat from former NIU standout Scott Simon (2003-07) to add to its memorabilia. Simon is the Mid-American Conference's all-time hit king with 318 and owns 10 Huskie career and season records.

GENTLEMEN AND SCHOLARS
Northern Illinois baseball continued its success in the classroom with a total of 13 players posting cumulative grade point averages of 3.0 or better through the fall. Pat Minogue and freshman Zach Oates and Tom Zelasko comprised the trio of players who earned Victory Scholar (3.5-4.0 GPA) recognition. Huskie Scholar (3.0-3.49) accolades went to 10 players: Brad Allen, Dan Atkenson, Nick Badgley, Cody Beck, Matt Behren, Joe Buonavolanto, Joe Etcheverry, Tim Kamin, Marvin Sanchez and Bobby Stevens.

STREAKERS
Pat Minogue enters the weekend with the Huskies' longest active hitting streak at four. Earlier this season, Reed put together a career-best 17-game streak, the second-longest on record at NIU. Jeff Thomas began the 2008 season by hitting safely in a career-best 12 games, the only other double-digit streak by a Huskie this season.

ETC.
A collection of random facts about Huskie personnel ... Head coach Ed Mathey is a member of the 2008 College Baseball Hall of Fame Voting Committee as the Midwest's "active coaches" regional representative ... Matt Behren, Pat Minogue, Brian Smith and Bobby Stevens were selected as 2008 team captains ... Joe Buonavolanto's parents own the popular "Buona Beef" restaurants in the Chicagoland area ... Brandon Copp, whose mother is a police officer (but does not have the last name Copp), wears the number "five-oh" ... Joe Etcheverry is the first Californian to play for the Huskies ... At 6'7" Zach Oates is the tallest Huskie player to take the field since 1980 ... Jeff Thomas is writing a blog titled "Out in Left Field" throughout the season on NIUHuskies.com.