CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – Windy conditions wreaked havoc with the Northern Illinois University's softball team's games in the Governors Classic at Austin Peay University Saturday.

While the Huskies earned a 10-7 win over Bellarmine University in the opener, they dropped a tough 8-3 decision to host Austin Peay in the second game despite playing a to a tight 3-3 tie through five innings.

"It was tough weather conditions today," Huskies head coach Christina Sutcliffe said. "When you're pitching with upwards of 30-40 mile per hour wind blowing out it made it a tough situation for everybody. We were able to get through the slugfest in the first game, but just ran out of steam in the second one unfortunately."

The severity of the weather conditions ended up cancelling Sunday's contest with the University of Northern Iowa, the third-straight Sunday cancellation for the Huskies to start the season.

"We can't seem to play on Sunday," Sutcliffe said. "I don't know what's going on. They're expecting over a half an inch of rain through 7 pm tomorrow."

NIU shelled out 11 hits, including a double and a triple from senior Katie Keller as well as a two-run home run from Sam Mallinder against Bellarmine and plated six runs in the third inning and three in the sixth. Keller went a near perfect 4 for 5 at the plate with four RBI and two runs scored while Kelly Walinski and Avery Carnahan, who also connected for a double, each drove in a run.

"We were able to string some hits together a little bit better in the first game," Sutcliffe said, "but struggled to do so in the second."

Sophomore Emily Dato earned the win in the pitcher's circle and improved her record to 3-1 as she worked 4 2/3 innings in relief. She struck out three batters and walked one.

In Game 2, NIU staked an early 2-0 lead on single runs via a Walinski RBI single in the first, and a Keller solo home run in the third. But Austin Peay pushed across three runs in the third inning on a three-run homer. The Huskies tied it immediately in the fifth when Mackenzie Mahy smacked a solo home run to left field in the fifth, but Austin Peay responded with a run in the bottom half of the fifth and four in the sixth to put the game away.

"We're playing well, but there's definitely some areas that we can improve and the team knows that," Sutcliffe said. "Overall we're pretty happy with where we're at."

In all, NIU connected for six extra base hits in both games and had a near flawless .981 fielding percentage.

"I told our players that this weekend is going to be pretty similar to what a conference weekend is going to look like," Sutcliffe said. "But we need to figure out how to get out of these weekends at least with a 3-1 record moving forward. We made some good plays all weekend, but we didn't make great plays. So I think that's what we're going to be looking for when we go back to practice this week. We need to challenge ourselves defensively so we can get some more outs."

NIU (6-6) returns to action Friday March 11 when it opens play at the SIU Tournament in Carbondale, Illinois with Southern Illinois-Edwardsville at 12 pm, followed by the host Salukis at 2:30 pm.
 
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