Box Score

NIU 2, Kent State 0 

AKRON, Ohio – Some positive déjà vu occurred at the MAC Softball Tournament on Thursday as Northern Illinois University used a two-run home run by Emily Naegele and great pitching from Alex Frenz to win a tight, low-scoring game for the second consecutive day at Firestone Stadium in Akron.

After beating Western Michigan on Wednesday, 3-1, the Huskies (35-18) defeated No. 1 seed Kent State (36-21) by a 2-0 scoreline thanks to a towering 20th home run of the season from Naegele (Oak Forest, Ill./Radford) in the fourth inning over the left-field fence and a four-hit shutout performance by MAC Freshman of the Year Frenz (Oakville, Mo./Oakville).

But perhaps the biggest story of the day for NIU, who now advance to Friday’s MAC Tournament winners’ bracket final against No. 2 seed Miami at 3:30 p.m. ET/2:30 p.m. CT, was its defense.

Holding on to their two-run lead late, the Huskies were boosted by two run-saving plays in the fifth and sixth innings. With two outs and runners on the corners in the fifth, shortstop Kali Kossakowski (Elgin, Ill./St. Edward) scooped up a difficult hop and fired to first to barely beat the KSU batter, ending the inning and preventing the runner at third from scoring. Then leading off the sixth inning, Maddy Grimm belted a ball deep to center field for the Golden Flashes, but NIU centerfielder Caitlyn Warren (Naperville, Ill./Wisconsin) raced back, jumped at the wall and caught the ball over her shoulder while flying through the air, landing on the wall and bouncing back up after saving another run for her team.

After leading NIU softball to a 2-0 start at the MAC Tournament for the first time since 2013, head coach Christina Sutcliffe wrapped up her team’s complete three-phase performance to knock off the event’s top seed.

“Between Emily’s clutch hit, Alex’s fantastic pitching and defensively – I thought Alaynie Woollard (New Castle, Ind./New Castle) had a phenomenal game at third and Caitlyn made that catch over the fence – we just got it done today,” Sutcliffe said. “We knew coming here we needed to sharpen up the defense, and we certainly made the plays we needed to when they had runners in scoring position.”

With several strong and timely defensive efforts behind her, Frenz became the first NIU pitcher to toss a shutout at the MAC Tournament since Morgan Bittner against Ohio in 2010.

In a game where NIU managed just two hits against KSU star pitcher Ronnie Ladines, the Huskies showed more patience at the plate that was rewarded. Prior to Naegele’s home run, Kayti Grable (Santee, Calif./Santana) worked a walk – one of four from the Huskies in the game – after a lengthy at-bat and scored the game’s winning run on the long ball by NIU’s clean-up hitter, Naegele.

After Miami defeated Ohio late on Thursday night 3-0 in a historic 15-inning thriller, the Huskies and RedHawks will now meet on Friday, with each team knowing they are just two more consecutive wins away from taking the MAC Tournament title and earning an automatic berth to the NCAA Championships.

Coach Sutcliffe highlighted the importance of NIU’s position heading into the weekend and believes pitching will continue to be the key to success for the Huskies.

“The longer you can live in the winners’ bracket, the better your chances of winning the whole thing are,” Sutcliffe added. “It keeps innings off your pitchers’ arms, for sure. And I expect tomorrow’s game to be another pitchers’ duel; it should be another great game and close like all of these games have been.”

MAC Tournament winners’ bracket finalists NIU and Miami didn’t meet in the regular season this year. The RedHawks lead 5-4 in previous postseason matchups between the two programs.

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