April 28, 2009

Final Stats

DEKALB, Ill. - The Northern Illinois University softball team's bats remained hot as the Huskies pounded out nine hits to defeat Illinois State, 5-3, Tuesday evening at Mary M. Bell Field.

With the victory over the Redbirds, the Huskies (15-33) posted a 4-1 mark on their final homestand of the season and posted an impressive 11-8 record at home, more than doubling their five home wins of 2008.

Northern Illinois did a great job of not only making contact, but taking advantage of five errors by the Redbirds (22-24). The big blow came in the bottom of the second when NIU scored three runs on two hits and two ISU errors. After Emily Gooding (Lismore, Australia/Lake Land C.C.) walked and Katie Colby (Waukesha, Wis./West) singled, Krista Matsui (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield South) laid down a bunt attempting to advance the runners.

Instead, Illinois State's catcher hit Matsui and rolled away from the first baseman, allowing Gooding to score from second and Colby to advance to third. Dani Thompson (Canyon Country, Calif./Canyon) dumped a single down the right field line to score Colby. Thompson would later score on an error by the Redbird second baseman to give NIU a 3-0 advantage.

The Huskies took advantage of another Redbird error in the bottom of the third when Michelle Williams (Fresno, Calif./Bullard), who reached on a one out single, scored when Colby reached on an error by the third baseman.

"The offense is doing a good job," NIU head coach Lindsay Chouinard said. "Obviously we had a couple situations where we had runners at second and third and we needed to be able to execute. For the most part we did a good job."

Just when it looked like the Huskies would run away with the game, Illinois State came back with three runs in the top of the fifth inning. However, Morgan Bittner (Long Beach, Calif./Long Beach Poly), the reigning MAC West Pitcher of the Week, regrouped and shut down the Redbirds the final two innings to grab her ninth victory of the season.

"Morgan had her one inning where she struggled a little bit," Chouinard said. "I think she was too worried about throwing strikes, instead of throwing her pitches. We had to talk her through and make sure got back to what she does well. She did a good job."

The Huskies have a rare back-to-back midweek schedule this week. Tomorrow the Huskies head north to take on Big Ten foe Wisconsin Wednesday night. First pitch is slated for 5 p.m.

-NIU-