AKRON, Ohio – The No. 3 seeded Northern Illinois University Softball team kept its Mid-American Conference championship hopes alive when it rallied from a six-run deficit to defeat Western Michigan, 15-9, in its fourth game of the 2017 MAC Tournament at Firestone Stadium Friday night.
 
"I just think we stayed patient," said NIU head coach Christina Sutcliffe. "To have the guts to come back and do that, obviously the grand slam was huge for us. Down six runs going into the top of the fifth, you're just trying to get a rally going try and chip away at it to give us a chance in the seventh. The next thing we knew we had a chance to win it."
 
After trailing 8-2 through the first four innings, the Huskies (33-20) scored 13 unanswered runs and received yet another dominant pitching performance from Tara Thacker (Uniontown, Ohio/North Canton Hoover) to defeat Western Michigan (25-29) and advance to Championship Saturday.
 
Senior Kali Kossakowski (Elgin, Ill./St. Edward) sparked NIU's comeback with a sacrifice fly in the fifth and broke the game wide open with a grand slam in the sixth.
 
Trailing 8-3 in the top of the sixth, Alaynie Woollard (New Castle, Ind./New Castle) opened the inning with a solo home run to left field. With two on and two outs, WMU elected to walk Kayti Grable (Santee, Calif./Santana) to load the bases for Kossakowski. The Huskie shortstop made the Broncos pay by blasting relief pitcher Holly Vantilburg's 1-2 pitch over the left field fence to clear the bases and tie the game, 8-8.
 
"Strategically, that's the move on paper to do," Sutcliffe said of WMU walking Grable. "Kali just made then pay. It's such a cool senior moment for her."
 
The Huskies took the lead for good in the top of the seventh, scoring seven runs in their final at bat. With two on and one out, Jenny Van Geertry (Mokena, Ill./Lincoln-Way East) tripled to center field to drive in Woollard and Dominique Greeno (Lacy, Wash./North Thurston) and give NIU a 10-8 lead.
 
Later in the inning, with two on or two out, Grable singled to right to drive in Van Geertry and give NIU an 11-8 advantage. Kossakowski then walked to load the bases. Anne Allen (New Lennox, Ill./Lincoln-Way North) walked to drive in the Huskies' 12th run of the game.
 
Jordyn Bowen (Libertyville, Ill./Grayslake) singled through the left side of the infield to drive in two more runs. Greeno capped the scoring in the game for the Huskies when she reached on an infield single to score Allen.
 
Kossakowski went 1-for-3 on the night with five RBIs and two runs scored to lead the NIU offense. The bottom of the Huskie line up did some damage for NIU as well, Woollard was 4-for-4 with an RBI and three runs scored, while Greeno went 2-for-3 with two runs and two RBIs. Van Geertry tallied three RBIs and a run scored while going 2-for-4.
 
Thacker, who came in with the Huskies down by six in the fourth inning, shut down the Bronco line up, allowing a seventh-inning run on five hits to pick up the win.
 
NIU returns to action Saturday morning when the Huskies face No. 4 seed Kent State. First pitch is set for 9:30 a.m. CT. Fans can follow it through live stats all on NIUHuskies.com.
 
-NIU-