April 4, 2006

Box Score

DeKalb, IL - After a less than desirable 0-4 start in the Mid-American Conference this past weekend, Northern Illinois University Softball faced #16 Northwestern in the Mary M. Bell Field home opener. In a well-played contest, the Huskies eventually fell 3-1 to the Wildcats.

After two scoreless innings, the Wildcats turned on the offense in the top of the third. NU second baseman Ashley Crane led off the inning with a single just before a flyout to centerfield accounted for the first out of the inning. Shortstop Tammy Williams singled to right field and advanced to second on a Huskie error, which also allowed Crane to cruise to third base. With runners now on the corners, leftfielder Katie Logan recorded the third single of the inning and an RBI to score Crane.

For the fourth and final basehit of the Wildcat second, National Fastpitch Coaches Association Player of the Week Garland Cooper notched a single to score Williams. With still only one out in the inning, catcher Kristen Amegin launched a deep fly ball to centerfield to record the second out. Tagging from third on the catch, Logan was gunned down at the plate by NIU centerfielder Kelly Park (West Aurora, IL/North Aurora).

Two more innings of scoreless softball went by before the Huskies took their turn at the offense in the bottom of the sixth inning. Leftfielder Kelly Drozd (Lockport, IL/Lockport) hit a bomb to right-centerfield to put up the only Huskie run of the game.

An inning later, in the top of the seventh, the Wildcats notched a security run when Williams and Logan led off the inning with back-to-back singles. On a flyout to centerfield by Cooper, Logan tried to reach second base but was shot down by NIU's Park for her second assist of the day. A two-out double by Amegin scored Williams and a groundout ended the NU seventh. The Huskies ended the game with two srikeouts, a walk and a final strikeout to end the game.

With both solid defense and pitching, the Huskies held the Cats, who were averaging 4.9 runs per game prior to the NIU contest, to only three runs on ten hits in a combined effort of Lindsey LaChiana (Oak Lawn, IL/Richards) who suffered the loss to fall to 3-4, Taryn Hagemann (Rochelle, IL/Rochelle) and Paige Granath (Machesney Park, IL/Harlem). Head coach Donna Martin was pleased with the performance of the pitching staff saying, "Considering some of the numbers Northwestern's been putting up, I really thought our pitching staff did a fabulous job. They are a good hitting team and have been crushing the ball lately, but we kept them in check."

Offensively, the Huskies put up four hits, which included the Drozd long ball, a double by rightfielder Ashley Clement (Moline, IL/Moline) and singles by third baseman Michelle Nendza (Palos Park, IL/ Lemont Mt. Assisi) and Jenna Roberts (Verona, WI/Verona). Unfortunately, the Huskies didn't capitalize on with runners in scoring position and ended up with the two-run deficit.

"After last weekend, we bouned back and played much better softball," said Martin. We just didn't quite take care of all of our opportunities to move the runners. That was the big difference between us and Northwestern. If we could have put down a bunt, it could have been a lot different."

Continuing the five-game home stand, the Huskies return to Mid-Am play in Friday (April 7) in a doubleheader against Ball State University at 1 pm. Singles games on Saturday (Apr. 8) at 6 pm and Sunday (Apr. 9) at 1 pm versus Miami University (OH).