April 23, 2010

DEKALB, Ill. - The Northern Illinois University softball team returns home from its six-game road trip for a doubleheader with conference foe Western Michigan at Mary M. Bell Field Saturday.

First pitch for the Huskies' (19-25, 7-5) Game One contest with WMU is set for 2 p.m., with the series finale to immediately follow. Fans can follow all the action live via Gametracker at NIUHuskies.com.

NIU, which enters Saturday's game having split its doubleheader with Wisconsin Tuesday, sits in third place in the Mid-American Conference and leads the Broncos (10-18, 5-7) by two games.

"I'm really looking for the team to finish through these games," NIU head coach Lindsay Chouinard said. "We are doing a good job finding a way to play well through the fifth inning and giving our pitchers the run support they need. With the defense growing stronger everyday, it's now time for the pitchers to finish."

Sophomore Morgan Bittner (Long Beach, Calif./ Long Beach Poly) has posted a 14-10 record this season, already matching last year's win total, and is 4-1 in her last five outings. She leads the Huskie pitching staff with a 2.75 earned run average and has 103 strikeouts this year.

An 11-for-22 performance at the plate the last seven games has vaulted freshman first baseman Jennifer Barnett (Indianapolis, Ind./Roncalli) to the top of NIU's batting leaders. Barnett is hitting .319 on the season, second only to pitcher Whitney Owens (Pendleton, Ind./Pendleton Heights), who leads the team with a .320 average. Barnett leads the team in hits with 36 and is third in runs batted in with 19.

Western Michigan comes to DeKalb winners of three of their last four games, splitting a doubleheader with Bowling Green and sweeping its series with Toledo. The Broncos swept last year's series, which was also played at Mary M. Bell Field, shutting out the Huskies, 4-0 and 1-0.

-NIU-