DEKALB, Ill. – The University of Toledo connected for eight extra base hits, including two home runs, in earning a 17-6, six-inning win over the Northern Illinois University softball team in Mid-American Conference play Saturday afternoon.

Senior Katie Keller (Geneva, Ill./Geneva) and Avery Carnahan (Johnston, Iowa/Johnston) led the Huskies offense with two hits apiece, including a two-run home run from Keller in the sixth inning.

"They came out with their bats swinging and unfortunately we weren't able to adjust," Huskies head coach Christina Sutcliffe said. "But our offense is still doing a lot better than we were earlier in the year and we talked to the players at the end of game and told them to 'continue to grow as an individual, as a player and as a person and take that into the last six games.'"

The Rockets struck for three runs in the third inning, two in the fourth and six each in the fifth and sixth frames. NIU plated a pair in the third via an RBI single from Bianca Barone (Machesney Park, Ill./Harlem) and a fielder's choice RBI from Ellis Erickson (Lutz, Fla./Freedom), and added one in the fourth and one in the fifth – a Carnahan RBI single – before Keller connected for her seventh home run of the season.

"We made a couple of good plays and Kelly Walinski is playing a really good third base right now and made some plays to get us off the field so that was good," Sutcliffe said. Plus Izzy Smith had a nice pinch hit off the bench late in the game which shows that in general this group is going to fight until the end. So we'll play our last six games and see what comes out of it."

Both Keller and Kara Apato (Oak Lawn, Ill./Marist) had a stolen base while pitchers Claire Norred (Tipton, Ind./Tipton) and Delaney Ostrowski (Geneseo, Ill./Geneseo) fanned a pair of batters each for the Huskies, who resume MAC play Tuesday when they travel to Kalamazoo, Michigan for a three-game weekday series with Western Michigan University.

-NIU-