The Eastern Michigan baseball team beat Northern Illinois, 4-2, in the first game of the Mid-American Conference tournament in Chillicothe, Ohio, on Wednesday morning.

Senior starter Robert Wendzicki allowed eight hits with seven strikeouts over 8 2/3 innings to earn the win in a game that started at 9 a.m. at V.A. Memorial Stadium.

The fifth-seeded Eagles (35-20) advance to the winner's bracket of the double-elimination tournament to play either top-seeded Kent State or Bowling Green at 4 p.m. Thursday.

The Eagles broke a 2-2 tie in the top of the seventh inning when an RBI single by Ken Battiston scored Daniel Russell. Russell added an insurance run in the top of the ninth with a solo home run. (Boxscore)

Wendzicki was relieved by Kristian Calibuso in the ninth after a two-out single by the pinch-hitter Brian Riegler.

Alex Klonowski flew out to the wall in left-center field to end the game and earn Calibuso his fifth save of the season.

The Mid-American Conference provides the following post-game interview with Wendzicki: