CARBONDALE, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University Softball team split its games on the final day of play in the Coach B. Classic Sunday.
 
NIU (8-6) suffered a 2-1 setback to Western Illinois in the first game of the day before defeating another in-state foe Southern Illinois (9-9), 9-3, in the tournament finale.
 
"I think we saved all our hits for the weekend for the very last game," said NIU head coach Christina Sutcliffe. "We finished the weekend hitting how we know we can."
 
Western Illinois pitcher Emily Ira held down the Huskie offense for seven innings, limiting NIU to two hits in the first game of the day. Both hits came off the bat of Kayti Grable (Santana, Calif./Santee).
 
The Huskies opened the scoring in the fourth inning. Kali Kossakowski (Elgin, Ill./St. Edward) reached and advanced to second on an error by Ira and Grable singled to drive her in to give NIU a 1-0 lead.
 
Tara Thacker (Uniontown, Ohio/North Hoover Canton), who had a no-hitter through the first five innings, saw it come to an end on an RBI double by Holly Hoelting in the sixth. With the score tied, 1-1, with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, Ira helped her own cause with a double, and scored on the next batter when Hailey Duwa singled.
 
"We just couldn't catch a break in the first game to get anything going," Sutcliffe said. "Tara threw an awesome game, good enough to win. We just couldn't back her with it [offensively]."
 
The Huskie bats fared a little better against Southern Illinois, using the long ball to rally for the win. NIU belted four home runs in the game.
 
After falling behind 2-0 in the first inning, Bekah Harnish (Maple Park, Ill./Burlington Central) put the Huskies on the board with a solo shot in the bottom of the inning. The Huskies broke the game wide open in the third inning putting up a three spot with all the runs coming with two outs.
 
Grable began the rally when she walked on four pitches. Abby Howlett (South Elgin, Ill./St. Charles North) tripled to drive in Grable and tie the game. Sam Schmidt (Lombard, Ill./Willowbrook) delivered the big blow in the inning when she homered to left center field
 
"Sam Schmidt had a phenomenal weekend defensively," she said. "She made some really nice plays for us, starting a couple double plays a couple times. Obviously this last game, she had a pretty big hit for us."
 
NIU extended its lead in the fourth inning, scoring three more runs, all via the home run. Jenny Van Geertry (Mokena, Ill./Lincoln-Way East) hit a two-run shot and Kossakowski connected on a solo shot to give NIU a 7-2 advantage.
 
With the score 7-3 heading into the bottom of the fifth inning after SIU scored a run in the top half of the frame, NIU came back with a pair of runs to extend their lead on a two-run double by Van Geertry.
 
Alex Frenz (Oakville, Mo./Oakville) settled down after the rough first inning, holding the Salukis to one run on four hits the next six innings. Frenz improved to 5-1 on the season with the complete game victory, allowing three runs, two earned, on six hits and no walks. The Huskie sophomore also tallied five strikeouts.
 
"Alex did a nice job of keeping them off balance," Sutcliffe said. "They hit her a little bit, but she kept it under control. That's the biggest thing we're trying to teach our pitchers; it's not just the one hit, what did you do right before and what did you do right after that one hit? She did a nice job with that. She controlled her walks, she pitched around when she did give up a hit and did a nice job of getting us off the field.
 
NIU returns to action Friday when the Huskies travel to Murray, Ky. to compete in the 2017 Racer Classic hosted by Murray State. The Huskies open the tournament against St. Louis with first pitch scheduled for 10 a.m.
 
-NIU-