ST. CHARLES, Mo. – The Lindenwood baseball team dropped both contests of their Saturday doubleheader against NIU for their first back-to-back losses of the 2026 season. The LU bats struggled to produce, combining for just three runs across both games.
Game 1 – Lindenwood 2, Northern Illinois 3
The Lions fell 3-2 in Saturday's opener despite another outstanding performance from starting pitcher
Seth Benes. The offense was unable to provide enough run support, only mustering four hits in the game.
Jake Radosevich was responsible for half of those hits, going 2-3 with an RBI.
After a scoreless first two and a half innings, Lindenwood would score the only run of the first seven frames with an
Ethan Cantareira solo home run to right field to lead off the bottom of the third.
The teams would combine for zero hits through the next four innings, with Lindenwood starter
Seth Benes exiting the game following the seventh inning after allowing just one hit with four strikeouts. Benes has now tossed 21 consecutive shutout innings to begin the 2026 season.
However, with Benes out of the game, NIU was finally able to scratch a pair of runs across the plate in the top of the eighth. Nick Sandee led off the frame with a base hit before moving to second on a passed ball and scoring on a Cole Smith double down the line in left to tie the game. After a ground out advanced Smith to third, a two-out double by Gavin Baldwin put the Huskies in front.
NIU added an insurance run in the top of the ninth, which would prove to be important after Lindenwood managed to plate their second run of the game with a
Jake Radosevich RBI single that scored
Kam Edwards, who had initially reached base with a leadvoff double.
Unfortunately for the Lions, they were unable to bring around the tying run, resulting in a tough 3-2 loss.
Game 2, Lindenwood 1, Northern Illinois 5
Game two started similarly, with neither team scoring through the first two innings as
Lucas Niemeyer recorded four strikeouts in the first two frames, including three in the first inning alone.
Northern would score the game's first run in the top of the third with Charlie Parcell scoring on a Cole Smith RBI double after tripling to lead off the inning. Lindenwood would respond in the bottom of the fourth, scoring one run on a
Cade Martinez RBI single that plated
Charlie Isom-McCall, who had doubled and stolen third to set up the scoring opportunity.
However, NIU surged back in front with a four-run top of the fifth, with all four runs being unearned thanks to a fielding error to begin the frame. The inning included a pair of sacrifice flies along with a two-run inside the park homer by Marcus Romero, who used his speed to score after driving a ball to the gap in left that got past a diving
Kam Edwards and rolled all the way to the wall.
Lindenwood was unable to find a counter through their final five at-bats, only managing a pair of hits following the fourth inning. The Lions put two runners on with one out in the ninth, but never brought the tying run to the plate, falling 5-1.
The Lions finished the game with eight total hits, with
Charlie Isom-McCall posting a 3-5 performance to lead LU batters.
Kam Edwards also recorded multiple hits with a 2-5 outing.
Lucas Niemeyer and
Michael Walsh combined to allow just one earned run on eight hits with nine strikeouts through eight innings, getting four innings of work apiece.
Next Up
The Lions and Huskies will conclude their series on Sunday at 1:00 p.m.
