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April 12, 2006

Box Score

Waterloo, Iowa -

Errors and missed opportunities crippled the University of Northern Iowa baseball team from the get go and led to a 7-6 defeat at the hands of Northern Illinois. The Panthers stranded 13 runners and committed four errors in the loss.

The Huskies plated a run in the first to take a 1-0 lead before starter Aaron Jenkins (Brooklyn Park, Minn./Champlin Park) sat down three batters on strikes to end the threat.

UNI erased the Huskie advantage with three runs in the bottom half of the inning, scoring one on a Brandon Douglas (St. Charles, Iowa/I-35) RBI double and two more off a two-run single by Curt Bradley (Colombia, MO/Rock Bridge).

Northern Illinois owned the middle innings, holding the Panthers' scoreless for six consecutive innings and scoring four runs total in its fifth and sixth frames. The Huskies added two more in the top of the eighth to bring the score to 7-3.

In the last of the eighth Pat Moran (Rapid City, S.D./Stevens) singled through the right side to score Clayton Daniels (Moulton, Iowa/Indian Hills CC) and Douglas drove in Eric Hoffmann (Erskine, Minn./Iowa Central). Brett Featherston (Epworth, Iowa/Western Dubuque) lifted a sacrifice fly to right to score Deric Manrique (Sioux City, Iowa/Nebraska/North) and cut the Huskie lead to one entering the ninth.

UNI threatened in the final frame but couldn't knot the game and fell 7-6.

Jenkins was solid through five innings and struck out a season-high eight batters. He allowed two runs (one earned) and surrendered just three hits, all to Brian Toner. Zach Zirbel took the loss after allowing three runs to cross in the eighth. The decision puts Zirbel's record at 0-1 on the season.

Bradley went 3-for-3 with two RBI and Moran was 3-for-5 on the night.  Douglas tallied a two-RBI double, scoring one run.

The Panthers dip below .500 for the first time all season with a 16-17 record while remaining 2-4 in Missouri Valley Conference play. The Huskies are now 14-17 on the season.

UNI returns to conference play this weekend with a three-game set against Evansville at Riverfront Stadium. The series kicks off Friday at 6:30 p.m., continues Saturday at 2:00 p.m. and concludes Sunday at 1:00 p.m.