BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – The Northern Illinois University softball team finished with a winning record as it concluded the Hoosier Classic with a split at Andy Mohr Field on Saturday.
The Huskies (8-18) started off the day losing in extra innings in a highly contested rematch with UIC, 1-0, before NIU bounced back to beat Green Bay in the second game, 10-2. The Huskies used clutch power hitting and strong pitching to defeat Green Bay in five innings. NIU scored at least one run in all five innings of play.
In the bottom of the first, junior
Jenny Van Geertry (Mokena, Ill. /Lincoln-Way East) led off with a triple and junior
Dominique Greeno (Lacey, Wash. /North Thurston) hit a sacrifice fly to left to give the Huskies an early 1-0 lead. In the second, senior
Bekah Harnish (Maple Park, Ill. /Burlington Central) doubled to center with one out. After freshman
Kira Mickelson (Wheatland, Wis. /Westosha Central) popped out to second base, junior
Katie Lamich (Naperville, Ill. /Naperville Central) singled to score Harnish from second giving the Huskies a 2-0 lead.
The Huskies added on to their lead in the third inning when they loaded the bases for Alayne Woollard (New Castle, Ind. /New Castle). The Huskie senior smoked a grand slam to right field to extend the Huskies' lead to 6-0. Woollard hit her first homer this season and took the team lead with 13 RBIs this season.
"Woo's [Woollard's] grand slam put us up by a decent amount and it was a huge hit for her," said NIU head softball coach
Christina Sutcliffe.
After the Phoenix came back and scored two runs in the top of the fourth, the Huskies were back to their high-powered scoring ways in the bottom half of the inning. Senior pitcher
Tara Thacker (Uniontown, Ohio. /North Canton Hoover) singled to start the inning. After junior
Abby Howlett (South Elgin, Ill. /St. Charles North) came in to pinch-run for Thacker, Van Geertry smacked a double to drive in Howlett from first. Van Geertry then scored on the next play on a wild pitch.
In the same inning, Greeno coaxed a walk to start another scoring play. After sophomore
Kayla Scaperrotta (Margate, Fla. /Coral Springs Carter School) and junior
Sam Schmidt (Lombard, Ill. /Willowbrook) both reached on errors, Greeno advanced to third and on the next play. Green Bay threw its second wild pitch of the inning and Greeno scored, giving the Huskies a 9-2 lead after four.
In the bottom of the fifth, with one out, Lamich singled through the left side. After Thacker reached on a fielder's choice, junior
Jessica Rio (Plainfield, Ill. /Plainfield) entered as a pinch-runner putting runners on first and second. The next batter was Van Geertry and she ripped a double to center to score Lamich from second.
Just like the first game, pitching proved to be consistent. Thacker pitched five innings and only gave up two runs on four hits. Thacker also struck out five batters.
"Tara came into the second game and did a nice job," said Sutcliffe.
In the first game of the day, after both teams scattered only five hits, the Huskies and the Flames were scoreless through eight innings. In the bottom of the ninth, UIC hit a one-out double and the next batter hit an RBI single giving the Flames a 1-0 victory.
NIU saw a stellar pitching performance from its freshman
Mackenzie Bryan (Elwood, Ind. /Elwood). The right-handed hurler threw five innings of scoreless softball while only giving up a hit. Bryan also struck out three batters and walked three. Junior
Alex Frenz (Oakville, Mo. /Oakville) and Thacker also pitched well for the Huskies in the game.
"I thought we pitched well all weekend long," said Sutcliffe. "That is what we were missing a little bit and I think it came together. We were not able to come through in the first game going into extra innings in a zero to zero game, tt is certainly nice to see the three of them to hold through with that."
Schmidt was the only Huskie to register a multi-hit game, while Van Geertry recorded the only extra-base hit for the Huskies which was a double in the bottom of the seventh.
"Jenny and Sam did a nice job all weekend," said Sutcliffe. "We were aggressive at the plate and we just were not able to capitalize with runners in scoring position. They definitely had better at-bats as a whole against that pitching."
The Huskies play one final tune-up game before the Mid-American Conference season starts next weekend when it travels downtown Chicago to play Missouri Valley foe Loyola of Chicago on Wednesday. Coverage starts at 2 p.m. on ESPN3.
-NIU-
