Ed Mathey
The Northern Illinois baseball team announced the addition of four right-handed pitchers in its early signing class of 2013 Wednesday morning.
Skipper Ed Mathey, now in his 11th season at Northern Illinois, will welcome three transfers, highlighted by one Northwoods League Summer All-Star, one of the tallest players in program history and one incoming freshman for the 2014 season.
“This year’s freshman class is heavy in left-handed pitching and we felt like we needed to balance that out,” Mathey said. “Looking at our future needs, you can never go wrong with pitching because it always plays out that way in Mid-American Conference play. Our goal is to be MAC Champions and that’s how we went about this recruiting class.
Three players in the class of 2013 are from the state of Illinois, Andrew Frankenreider (Peoria), Seth Fuller (Moline) and TJ Schrader (Mackinaw), while the other, Dirk Ormsby, is from next door in Logonier, Ind.
Fuller played last summer with the Wisconsin Rapids Rafters, where he was a Northwoods League South Division All-Star. Ormsby is the the tallest baseball player in Northern Illinois baseball history since left-handed pitcher Larry Funsch (1978-79) at 6’8”.
With 14 freshman on this year’s NIU baseball team, Mathey addressed the team’s need for junior college transfers with experience under their belts.
“It was a period of assessment to see not only what our recruiting needs were, but also with our current team from the new perspective of our coaches. I think we were all unanimous that we could definitely use more arms on the right handed side.
“We had several guys on campus and we are very excited about these four guys. We think there are some short-term things that will come to fruition very quick with these guys and a couple things that will play out over time as well. Credit to our coaches Todd Coryell and Tom Carcione, I think they did a great job finding us some quality individuals.”
For more information on NIU baseball and Huskie athletics, visit www.niuhuskies.com.
