The University of Southern Indiana baseball team won a four-game series, 3-1, against Northern Kentucky University, which started on Friday evening.

The eagles were able to capture a 5-2 victory. They were led by the hot bats of first baseman Adam Enright and third baseman Reece Rounder and a dominant pitching performance by senior Trevor Leach.

Leach went the distance and pitched a complete game, giving up two runs and recording eight strikeouts. He picked up his sixth win of the season as he continues to be one of USI’s most consistent hurlers.

Rounder was able to provide three of the five RBIs for USI offense. The Eagles also had hits from center fielder Justin Blinn and leftfielder Michael Huling. Doing his part for the out fielders, right fielder Bryan Chestnut crossed the plate for two of USI’s five runs.

The second game of the series on Saturday afternoon was a different story than the game the night before. The Eagles were defeated 8-1 in a lackluster performance.

USI’s starting pitcher Josh Schultze, was touched up for six runs on nine hits. Senior pitcher Jared Canterbury came in for relief after the third inning and allowed two runs on two hits.

The only Eagles run came off the bat of catcher Jarrod Rose, when he hit a sacrifice fly ball. The loss ended a five-game win streak for the Eagles.

USI bounced back from the previous lopsided loss with a 4-2 victory in the night cap. “After losing the previous game we were pretty down on ourselves, credit given to their pitcher he was probably the best we have seen all year,” centerfielder Justin Blinn said. The Eagles were lead by solid hitting performances from third baseman Ryan Kaczmarski and left fielder Michael Huling, who also crossed the plate for two of USI’s four runs.

With the win, the Eagles were able to show some resilience and get back to their winning ways after a poor performance in the game before.

The key game of the series was the one on Sunday afternoon and determined whether or not the Eagles were going to split or take the series from the Norse.

The starting pitcher for USI was senior Tyler Choate, but due to an arm ailment, he was only able to pitch 1 1/2 innings.

Senior pitcher Dan Marcacci, was called on to relieve Choate. “It was nice to get out there and throw for more innings,” said Marcacci after he was able to come in and provide a different role, other than closer, for the Eagles.

“I had no time to get ready. I took all my warm-up pitches on the mound instead of in the bullpen,” added Marcacci. Despite being rushed into action, Marcacci provided a solid performance, going seven innings, striking out four and only giving up one run.

The Eagles were fronted on the offensive side by lead-off hitter Justin Blinn, who had three hits and three RBIs. Another key producer was the ninth hitter Ben Griggs, who had two RBIs with two triples. Every Eagle hitter recorded a hit to tally an impressive 13 for the game.

Marcacci strongly believes this weekend’s series will help the team in the next series against Lewis College.

“The guys played great and it will help give us momentum in the next series,” Marcacci said.

The Eagles will try to continue their winning ways, when they travel to Lewis on Saturday.