TOURNAMENT CENTRAL

DEKALB, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University softball team is traveling to North Carolina for its annual spring break trip. NIU opens 12-game, 10-day trip at the N.C. State DoubleTree RDU Challenge Friday.

The Huskies (8-6) open play in Raleigh with a doubleheader against Delaware St. (9 a.m.) and local foe Loyola (11:15 a.m.) Friday. The Huskies will then face host N.C. State Saturday at 11:15 a.m. All times listed are Central.

The tournament will be a true round robin as the No. 1 and No. 4 seeds will face off against each other at 1:30 p.m. and the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds will play at 2:45 p.m. Saturday. The championship game will take place at 11:15 a.m. Sunday, while the third-place game is set for 9 a.m. Sunday.

NIU head coach Christina Sutcliffe is excited for the opportunity for her squad to get some extended playing time outside on dirt. This is the Huskies’ last chance to polish things up before conference play. When NIU returns from its trip, they open Mid-American Conference play at Bowling Green.

“Going on the road, getting 12 games in in a consecutive streak is going to be nice for us, just to try and get some momentum going for us,” Sutcliffe said. “Being able to come back from St. Louis and be outside this week has also helped. By the time we get back, we’ll have been outside for three straight weeks.

“Hopefully we will be in the flow of who we’re going to become. That’s kind of the key, is using these games to figure out what kind of identity we’re going have going into MAC play.”

The last three weeks have been kind of a mixed bag for the Huskies. NIU went 2-3 in the season opening tournament, scoring 17 runs in five games. Two weeks ago in Arizona, the Huskie bats exploded, tallying 38 runs while going 4-1 on the weekend. This past weekend, NIU went 2-2 at the Cancer Awareness Tournament in St. Louis, winning the first two games in five innings, 12-1, 9-1, before dropping the last two games.

“I’ve seen glimpses of success in all areas of our game,” she said. “We’ve had great games where we’ve pitched it well. We’ve had great games where we’ve obviously dominated offensively and we’ve had games where we’ve had to play some defense to squeak out a win, especially in Arizona. What we need to figure out in the next week and a half is how to put at least two of those three together everyday.”

Senior Emily Naegele (Oak Forest, Ill./Oak Forest) and junior Kaytie Grable (Santee, Calif./Santana) have been leading the way for NIU this season. Naegele is averaging a team-high .538 and leads the Huskies in homers with five. Grable is second on the team to Naegel in RBIs with 12 and is batting .371.

“[Emily] Naegele and Kayti [Grable] have been the catalyst for our offense for two or three years now,” Sutcliffe said. “We have enough around them that we shouldn’t have to rely on just them. We try to produce from one though nine. Our depth is bigger than it’s ever been.”

Following the N.C. State DoubleTree RDU Challenge, the Huskies travel to Campbell for a doubleheader Mar. 15 before heading to Greensboro, N.C. to compete in the Blue/Gold Challenge hosted by UNC Greensboro Mar. 18-20.

-NIU-