NIU catches fire in MAC tourney, earns first NCAA bid in 54 years
When he took the job, Northern Illinois University baseball coach Ryan Copeland said the plan was to win right away.
Well, it took three years, but that's still an impressive feat, considering the Huskies had been on a streak of 13 consecutive losing seasons.
NIU won the Mid-American Conference tournament title over the weekend, and is the No. 3 seed in the Florida State regional. The Huskies (35-17) will face Coastal Carolina at 7 p.m. Friday in Tallahassee for the school's first NCAA tourney action in baseball since 1972.
This is Northern Illinois’ last year in the MAC. The Huskies will jump to the Horizon League in most sports while football moves to the Mountain West.
The University of Illinois-Chicago is also headed for an NCAA regional after winning the Missouri Valley tournament. The Flames (27-27) will travel to Atlanta and take on No. 2 tournament seed Georgia Tech at 11 a.m. Friday. Oklahoma and The Citadel are the other two teams in that region.
A week ago, there was talk the MAC might be a two-bid conference, since Miami ranked No. 45 in RPI and Kent State was 50. Northern Illinois was the No. 4 seed in the tournament, then won four straight games to capture the title.
The big win was in Round 2, when the Huskies edged Miami 6-5 in 15 innings. They beat Toledo 10-3 in the championship bracket final, then took down the Rockets again 5-1 on Saturday to clinch the title.
“We've got to be able to find a way to win every type of game,” Copeland said. “I think that's something we stressed in recruiting, we stressed it in practice. I think we're so dangerous because we can win any kind of game in front of us.”
Copeland was a star pitcher at Elk Grove High School, then played at Illinois State and was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in 2010 before his pro career was cut short by injuries. He was head coach at Illinois-Springfield before moving to DeKalb in 2023.
NIU's best hitter and pitcher are from the suburbs. Freshman Wyatt Wawro (Downers Grove South) hit .374 this season, while senior left-hander Max Vaisvila (Willowbrook) was second in the MAC with a 3.04 ERA.
Junior Charlie Parcell (Maine West) starts in center field; junior Cooper Cohn (McHenry) is both pitcher and utility infielder, and threw 8 scoreless innings of relief in the MAC tourney; while senior Matt Tarr (West Aurora) leads the team in relief appearances.
UIC will be making its seventh NCAA tournament appearance, the first since 2019. The Flames secured the regular season title after winning 13 of their last 16 MVC games, then rolled past Southern Illinois twice and Murray State once in the conference tourney. Catcher Thomas Curry was named most outstanding player, going 6-for-13 at the plate with 7 RBI in the tourney.
Two reliable starters are senior right-hander Kendall Lyons (Warren) and lefty Brandon Bak (Plainfield North), while Jake Jakubowski (Huntley) leads the team in relief appearances and finished off SIU on Sunday.