ATHENS, Ohio – The Northern Illinois University softball team fell to Ohio University 9-4 in Mid-American Conference play Sunday morning.

Ohio pitching handcuffed Huskie hitters as NIU generated only two extra base hits while stranding seven runners on base.

"Their pitcher did a really nice job of coming up with a different game plan against us, which kept us off balance," Huskies head coach Christina Sutcliffe said. "We came into knowing that she was going to throw up and outside the zone but unfortunately we just couldn't lay off of it."  

Ohio plated four runs in the second and two in the third thanks to a three-run double and a two-run home run as the Bobcats avoided a three-game sweep in earning their 20th win of the season.

NIU trimmed the deficit to 6-2 in the fourth when Bianca Barone (Machesney Park, Ill./Harlem) led off with a double, advanced to third on Ellis Erickson's (Lutz, Fla./Freedom) single to center field and scored on Mackenzie Mahy's (New Lenox, Ill./Lincoln Way West) single to the shortstop. Erickson then came around when Kelly Walinski (Worth, Ill./Marist) laced a single to left field.

"Our offense is starting to do really well especially later in the game," Sutcliffe said. "We're showing a little more pop in our bats which is good to see. Overall it was just a really good series and our defense did a pretty good job of getting us off the field. Our production has been a lot more explosive the last four games than it was the last 20 games prior to that."

Ohio tallied two more runs in the fifth on an RBI double and a sacrifice fly. NIU did counter with two in the sixth – thanks to a two-run home run from senior Katie Keller (Geneva, Ill./Geneva), but couldn't draw any closer.

"We've got crawl our way back in the conference," Sutcliffe said. "So we've got to throw some good weekends together – unfortunately we've dug ourselves in to a hole – but we've just got it take it game by game and work ourselves back into the conference conversation."

NIU steps out of MAC play Wednesday when it travels to UIC for a 3 p.m. single game at Flames Field.

"We're going to take our off day tomorrow and see how we're doing on Tuesday," Sutcliffe said. "The key to that game will just be to continue to keep rolling the offense."

-NIU-