BOCA RATON, Fla. – Despite a solid pitching effort and stout defense, the Northern Illinois University softball team dropped a pair of decisions – 8-1 to Ohio State and 2-1 to Bethune-Cookman – to open play at the Florida Atlantic University Tournament Friday morning.

The Huskies (0-2) combined for a .948 fielding percentage and yielded only three extra base hits in the two games, but combined to leave eight runners on base.  

"We need to regroup a little bit and come back with a little more fight in the batter's box," NIU head coach Christina Sutcliffe said. "When you only score two runs in 14 innings it's not enough and we're not getting it done on that end. So we just need to be a little more patient, get the jitters out of us and go back to attacking the ball the way we know we can."

After falling behind 1-0 to Bethune-Cookman on an RBI flyout in the first inning, the Huskies responded in the third when senior Kara Apato led off with a single, advanced to third on a Bianca Barone single to right and scored on Sam Mallinder's RBI sacrifice fly to center field. Huskies' starting pitcher Emily Dato kept NIU in contention as she gave up only two hits in the next three innings, but Bethune-Cookman struck for a go-ahead and ultimately the game-winning run in the sixth inning on an RBI single down the right field line. In all, Dato worked a complete game and struck out two batters while walking none.

"We had a nice outing from Dato from a pitching stand point but we just need to figure out how to capitalize on it," Sutcliffe said.

NIU shelled out six hits with Apato connecting for two. Barone, Mallinder, Ellis Erickson and Mackenzie Mahy each had one to lead the offense.

"We battled all the way to the end but just came up short," Sutcliffe said. "We just need to make some corrections in the box. We were too far out front popping up too much, but once we get our feet under us we'll do alright."

In the opener, Ohio State tagged NIU for six runs on five hits – including a two-run double – en route to the seven-run victory. The Huskies engineered a run in seventh when Barone ripped a double to left-center field and scored on Mallinder's single. Huskies' right-hander Delaney Ostrowski came on in relief and tossed five solid innings, striking out four batters and walking none.  

"We had a little bit of a rough start but then we settled in," Sutcliffe said. "Delaney did a real nice job of coming in to the game and holding them to zero runs for four innings, which gave us a chance to chip back but we just couldn't figure out how to put anything together against their pitcher."

Barone, Apato and Mallinder each had a hit for the Huskies.

"When you go down six early I think it's easy to give up but they continued to fight and continued to try and put some pressure on them throughout the game, but we just couldn't find a break."

NIU resumes play at the FAU tournament tomorrow afternoon when it takes on Indiana at 3:30 p.m., followed by the host Florida Atlantic Owls in the 6:30 p.m. nightcap.

Live Stats for both games will be available at:
https://fausports.com/sidearmstats/softball/summary
Live Video of the FAU-NIU contest will be available at:
https://conferenceusa.com/watch/default.aspx?Live=15107&path=fau

-NIU-