After their mid-week match against the Pittsburgh Panthers was canceled, the Zips baseball team looks to their weekend series against MAC foe Northern Illinois.

UA is currently 13-16 for the season with a 5-4 record in MAC play. During their series with the Cardinals last weekend, the team suffered their first series lost to a conference rival. The team will look to get back on a winning streak and hopefully climb the standings in the MAC as they are third behind Kent State and Ohio.

Expect John Valek, Jt Brubaker, and Jon Pusateri to be on the mound for the better part of the weekend, with each posting a record of 3-3 for the season. Between the three pitchers, Brubaker has the most strikeouts with 35, while Pusateri has 32 and Valek following with 30 outs. Opposing teams have scored 55 out of 118 hits for a run percentage of .461 while one of these pitchers threw the ball across the plate. Also, Akron ranks fourth in the conference with opposing batters having a batting average of .260 while giving up 81 walks which leads the MAC.

In batting, Joey Havrilak leads the team with a batting average of .361 with 27 runs and 39 hits at 108 at bats. Havrilak is followed by Daulton Mosbarger with an average of .315 with his 21 runs in 35 hits and Dom Iero who has 12 runs and an average of 3.05. In fact the team as a whole is doing pretty well from home plate with a team average of .277 ranking them fourth overall in the MAC.

Northern Illinois is 13-17, 4-5 and currently in a five game losing streak. With this losing streak the Huskies have fallen to fifth in the West Division and will be looking to end their streak and climb up the standings before the last stretch of the season.

NIU starts a trio of pitchers who are Dirk Orsmby (5-3), Ben Neumann (4-2), and Seth Fuller (2-3). While these three pitchers are on the mound, 75 runs have been scored on with 126 hits. Most of the runs and hits have happened while Fuller pitched with 27 runs and 46 hits. During the season the NIU pitchers have allowed 122 batters to walk with opposing team’s batting average of .285.

At bat, the Huskies star is Brian Sisler with 17 runs scored and a leading average of .336 in the season. Stephen Lets is another Huskie to watch as he leads the team with 18 runs and second in batting average (.324). The Huskies as a whole, bat an average of .264 and are ranked fourth in their on-base percentage at .357 as well as fifth in runs scored with 157. Akron will need to limit their errors and play well to win the series and keep NIU from playing their offence’s strategy.

The three game series between the Akron Zips and the Northern Illinois Huskies will be held in Akron at Lee R. Jackson Field and is scheduled for 3 p.m. on Friday, April 10 and 1 p.m. for the remainder of the games on Saturday and Sunday.

Come out and support your Akron Zips baseball.