Final Stats

MUNCIE, Ind. -- The Northern Illinois University softball team split a doubleheader Saturday in Muncie, Indiana, against division leader Ball State.
 
NIU (23-19, 7-5 MAC) took the first game of the twinbill against the Cardinals (24-21, 10-3 MAC) with a 4-2 win in nine innings. However, the Huskies suffered a hard-fought 7-6 defeat to BSU in the second contest.
 
"Entering the day, if you would have asked me that, I would have said yes, but knowing that we were in both games and probably should have won the second game, I'd probably say no," said NIU head coach Christina Sutcliffe on the split.
 
Game One: Huskies Down Cardinals in Extras, 4-2
 
NIU got some late-game heroics for the second-straight day, as it scored a 4-2 win in nine innings over Ball State.
 
In the top of the ninth, Bryanna Phelan (Coal City, Ill./Coal City) brought in the go-ahead run on a fielder's choice and an error, while Emily Naegele's (Oak Forest, Ill./Oak Forest) three spots later provided the final tally in the extra-inning victory. Meanwhile, Tara Thacker (Uniontown, Ohio/North Canton Hoover) pitched four innings of one-hit relief to pick up the win.
 
"With our offense, it's tough to pitch to them that many times," Sutcliffe said. "They're pretty good about making adjustments at this point in the season. We've had so many close one-run games that they're used to being in (those situations)."
 
In a contest where runs were at a premium, the Huskies nearly got on the board in the first inning. With runners on first and second, Bekah Harnish (Maple Park, Ill./Burlington Central) drew a four-pitch walk to load the bases with two outs. However, BSU stranded all three Huskies with a strikeout.
 
The Cardinals got the first run of the game in the bottom of the second. After a hit by pitch, walk, error and steal put runners on second and third with none out, Shelbie Scamihorn hit a sac fly to centerfield that allowed Hanne Stuedemann to score for a 1-0 BSU lead.
 
NIU was quick to counter in the top of the third with a run of its own. Bryanna Phelan (Coal City, Ill./Coal City) led off with a single, then moved to second on a sacrifice bunt. The senior moved to third on a foulout, while Naegele's double to left-center scored Phelan to make it a 1-1 contest.
 
The Huskies took their first lead of the game in the fifth thanks to some clutch hitting in the middle of the order. With two runners on and two outs, Naegele again came up with a double in the left gap to bring in Kali Kossakowski (Elgin, Ill./St. Edward) to give NIU a 2-1 lead.
 
Yet, BSU pushed across the tying run in the sixth. A walk and a single put two on with no outs, while a sac bunt moved both runners into scoring position for pinch hitter Hayley Cruthers, who managed to hit a sac fly to knot the game at 2-2.
 
Following a scoreless seventh and eighth, the Huskies were in business in the ninth thanks in small part to some sloppy play by the BSU defense. Caitlyn Warren (Naperville, Ill./Naperville North) started things with a double, then scored on Phelan's fielder's choice and a throwing error by the Cardinals. A Kayti Grable (Santee, Calif./Santana) walk put two on for Naegele, who added an insurance runner with a single into leftfield to make it 4-2 NIU. In the bottom half of the frame, Thacker gave up a single -- her lone hit against her in the game -- while the Huskie defense turned a double play and got a groundout to end the game.
 
"Keegan (Hayes) and Tara did a really good job of coming in and shutting them down," Sutcliffe said. "Tara came in and really shut the door. We have struggled defensively of late, but she did a good job of getting three up, three down."
 
Game Two: Early Runs Not Enough for NIU in 7-6 Loss
 
Despite building up an early lead, the Huskies suffered a 7-6 defeat to the Cardinals in game two.
 
Home runs from Tara Thacker and Kali Kossakowski helped NIU build up an early 5-2 lead on BSU, but runs in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth innings lifted the Cardinals to the win.
 
"The game's all about adjustments," Sutcliffe said. "We knew Ball State was going to score a lot of runs, so we knew even when we put four up in the second that it wasn't going to be enough and we needed to continue to score. Their pitcher came in and did a really good job at keeping us off balance and getting us to chase pitches."
 
NIU got the scoring started early with a tally in the top of the first. Kossakowski and Kayti Grable reached base on a hit by pitch and a walk, respectively, to set the stage for Bekah Harnish. The freshman from Maple Park, Illinois, came up big with a double -- her team-high 10th of the year -- into the leftfield corner to score Kossakowski.
 
BSU, though, had an answer in the bottom half of the inning. Emily Dabkowski's single put runners on the corners for Hanne Stuedemann, who cleared the bags with a double into centerfield to give the hosts a 2-1 lead.
 
The Huskies had an even bigger rebuttal in the second. Thacker tied the game with a solo home run to left. However, NIU's offense had even bigger plans, as Caitlyn Warren's double and a single and error for Bryanna Phelan put two runners in scoring position with one out. Kossakowski took advantage of the situation, blasting her second home run of the team to give the Huskies a 5-2 lead.
 
In the third, BSU moved within two on Sammi Cowger's RBI single, as Jessica Craft scored from second. Again, NIU had an answer in the next stanza. A Phelan single, a sac bunt and a groundout put a runner at third for Emily Naegele, who put the Huskie lead back at three runs with a hard-hit triple to rightfield to score Phelan.
 
Starting in the bottom of the fourth, the Cardinals started to chip away at NIU's lead. The rally started when Loren Cihlar tripled home Selena Reyna to make it 6-4. One inning later, Amanda Arnett's RBI single moved BSU to within one run of the Huskies, while an error on the play enabled a second run to cross to tie the game. BSU moved ahead in the sixth, as Stuedemann's sac fly allowed Cihlar to tag up and score for a 7-6 Cardinal lead.
 
Needing a run, Thacker lined a two-out single to keep the game alive. However, a fielder's choice in the next at-bat ended the comeback chance for NIU.
 
The Huskies' next game comes Friday, April 24, when they host Eastern Michigan for a doubleheader at Mary M. Bell Field beginning at 1 p.m.