After beating Bowling Green in walk-off fashion on Tuesday, the Central Michigan baseball team used a suicide squeeze in the bottom of the ninth inning to complete a come-from-behind 7-6 win against Northern Illinois Friday in front of 337 in Mount Pleasant.

Entering the last frame tied at 6, CMU got back-to-back singles from sophomore second baseman Jordan Dean (3-for-5, RBI) and junior first baseman Nate Thuenissen (2-for-5, two RBIs). Junior left fielder Sam Russell was intentionally walked, loading the bases for senior shortstop Robbie Harman, who bunted a pitch to the right side as Theunissen flew down the third base line to give the team its second consecutive walk-of win.

“Any time it gets put on it gets your heart pumping a little bit, and when you see the runner coming down the line, you get a little excited,” Harman said. “You just got to get the bunt down, and that’s what I did. I’m just happy I was in that situation and didn’t have to swing and knock him because it wasn’t going all that great.”

With one out on the board after senior Rod Helsen hit into a fielder’s choice, CMU head coach Steve Jaksa said he was unsure going into the at-bat of what he wanted Harman to do. Harman came into the game hitting .226 and had struggled, going 0-for-3 with two strikeouts, in earlier plate appearances.

“The infield was in and I knew if he got a curveball up he would probably hit the ball well enough to get a sac fly,” Jaksa said. “At the same time, I knew he was bunting the ball pretty good and I felt comfortable. He’s a senior kid and sometimes you decide to put the game in their hands in those situations.”

Coming off a string of solid appearances, junior left-hander Trent Howard was chased out of the game after giving up four runs on four hits in three innings of work.

Howard (4-3, 2.19 ERA) pitched a perfect first inning, striking out all three batters he faced, while CMU took an early 1-0 lead. The second proved to give him troubles, as he walked the first two batters before giving up a two-out, three-run home run to NIU catcher Brett Frantini.

Senior Rod Helsen, who came into Friday’s game with one hit all season, used an RBI double to cut the Huskies’ lead to 4-2 before the Chippewas scored three runs in the third to pull ahead 5-4.

“We were battling all day,” Harman said. “We were putting runs on the board in the beginning of the game. I don’t think we had a feeling like we were going to lose all day.”

NIU (20-19, 10-6 Mid-American Conference) responded in the fifth, scoring a pair of runs off junior reliever Jon Weaver. Junior Mike Nixon came in during the fifth and slammed the door, pitching a shutout in 2 2/3 innings. Sophomore left-hander Dietrich Enns followed up with two scoreless innings, while surrendering just one hit.

“Nixon came in and give us three quality innings, and that’s where we’re ready to turn it over to Enns in that situation,” Jaksa said. “We felt that if we could just get the game tied or keep it within a run, that’s what needed to do. Between Nixon and Enns going down the stretch, they were able to do that.”

While CMU found a way to stabilize its pitching, NIU starter Zach Oates settled down midway though. Oates gave up 13 hits in seven innings pitched, but proved to be economical in holding the Chippewas scoreless from the fourth to seventh innings.

When the Huskies brought in reliever Alex Klonowski in the eighth, junior third baseman Tyler Hall blasted a 2-2 pitch over the right field fence to tie the game. Hall finished the game 3-for-5 and two runs scored.

The win moves CMU (22-20, 10-6 MAC) into a four-way tie with NIU, Toledo and Eastern Michigan atop the MAC West. Toledo beat Western Michigan and EMU beat Ball State on Friday.

“We all know what we want to do,” Harman said. “We obviously want to sweep, but we’re taking it game-by-game and just play how we have been playing lately."

Both teams will play Game 2 of the series at 2:05 p.m. Saturday at Theunissen Stadium.