KENT, Ohio – The Northern Illinois University Softball team split its doubleheader with Kent State, taking game two, at Diamond at Dix Saturday afternoon.
 
The Huskies (17-15, 5-5) suffered a 6-5 setback to Kent State (15-20, 5-5) in the first game of the day, before taking the second game, 7-6, from the Golden Flashes.
 
"Our offense did a great job of scoring early and often today," said NIU head coach Christina Sutcliffe. "Our defense was amazing. It was almost all nine of them."
 
A five-run fifth proved to be the difference in the Huskies' victory over Kent State. Already leading, 2-1, NIU strung together four hits in the inning and took advantage of a Golden Flashes error to break the game wide open.
 
Kali Kossakowski (Elgin, Ill./St. Edward) began the rally when she doubled in Jenny Van Geertry (Mokena, Ill./Lincoln-Way East), who led off the inning with a single. Kossakowski came around to score when hot-hitting Bekah Harnish (Maple Park, Ill./Burlington Central) reached on an error. Kayti Grable (Santa, Calif./Santee) homered to centerfield to drive in Harnish and give the Huskies a 6-1 lead.
 
A one-out single by Jessica Rio (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield East) drove in Alaynie Woollard (New Castle, Ind./New Castle), who walked and was sacrificed over to second, capped the scoring for the Huskies.
 
"We stayed patient with their pitcher and finally got at her and was able to capitalize on some bloop hits," Sutcliffe said. "Kayti came in and hit the home run. That helped as well. All around, we played two great games."
 
Kent State mounted a late rally in the final at bat, scoring five runs of their own. The big blow came off the bat of Maddy Grimm, who hit a two-out, three-run homer down the right field line. However, pitcher Alex Frenz (Oakville, Mo.), regrouped and got Ronnie Ladines to line out to Van Geertry to end the game.
 
It was only fitting that Van Geertry would record the final out as the Huskie sophomore made several incredible game-saving catches in both games.
 
The Huskies and Golden Flashes went into extra innings in the first game of the day. An RBI double by Bailey Brownfield in the eighth inning was the deciding run in the contest.
 
"Both teams played a really good game in that first game," she said. "We should've gotten off the field sooner than we did in the first inning. That ended up being the difference there. It was a back and forth battle."
 
NIU jumped on top early with a three-run first inning. An RBI single by Harnish and two-run homer by Woollard gave the Huskies a 3-0 lead in the opening frame. However, Kent State tied the game with three runs of their own in the bottom of the first.
 
Kent State took a 5-3 lead with a pair of runs in the bottom of the third. The Huskies battled back with an RBI double by Van Geertry in the fourth and Harnish scoring when Grable reached on an error to tie the game.
 
In addition to the offense by NIU, the Huskie defense, which struggled at Ball State, was outstanding in game one, highlighted by the play of Van Geertry. She made run-saving diving catches in the third and seventh innings and threw out a runner at the plate in the sixth.
 
"Jenny in center made three plays that single-handidly saved runs," Sutcliffe said. "Kali made a huge play up the middle. Sam at third made a couple line-drive double plays, Harnish had a great play to get out of an inning. Kayti stopped a couple balls drilled at her. I mean they were just amazing all around defensively."
 
NIU returns to the field Sunday when the Huskies wrap up their series with Kent State. First pitch is scheduled for 12 p.m. CT. Live stats will be available on NIUHuskies.com.
 
-NIU-