KALAMAZOO, Mich. – Led by two hits apiece from senior Katie Keller (Geneva, Ill./Geneva) and Mackenzie Mahy (New Lenox, Ill./Lincoln Way West), the Northern Illinois University softball team earned a 4-3, eight-inning victory over host Western Michigan University in the first game of a doubleheader Wednesday.

The Huskies fell 7-6 in the second game despite overcoming a 5-0 deficit in with six runs in the fifth inning – highlighted by an RBI single from Sam Mallinder (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield North) and a two-run single from Caitlyn Shumaker (Bellefontaine, Ohio/North Dakota).

"Our offense kept cruising and continued to put pressure on them," Huskies head coach Christina Sutcliffe said. "We did a nice job of coming from behind in the second game with six runs, and overall it was a good performance for both games."

An RBI sacrifice fly from Mahy in the eighth inning of Game 1 proved to be the deciding factor as the Huskies sent the Broncos down in order in the bottom half of the frame. In both games combined, NIU was a perfect 11 of 11 in stolen bases, with Shumaker swiping six bags in the process.

"Our game plan going into this series was to expose their catchers and run as much as we could," Sutcliffe said. "So it was good to see we were successful with that."  

The Huskies pulled ahead 2-0 in Game 1 early when Keller led off with a double in the first inning, advanced to second on a Kara Apato (Oak Lawn, Ill./Marist) single and scored on Bianca Barone's (Machesney Park, Ill./Harlem) reach on an error. Apato then came across on a wild pitch. Western Michigan trimmed the lead in half with a run-scoring single in the bottom half of the first, and later claimed the lead on a two-run home run in the third inning.

NIU countered in the fifth though when Keller led off with her second double of the game, advanced to third on Apato's sacrifice bunt and scored Maddie Mackey's (Geneseo, Ill./Geneseo) bunt single to the catcher. Huskies pitcher Claire Norred (Tipton, Ind./Tipton) then held WMU's offense to only four hits the rest of the way in earning the complete-game victory, her fifth of the season. She fanned three batters while walking two.

"Claire made some really big pitches against some hitters that had success against her earlier in the game," Sutcliffe said. "But she was able to make an adjustment, attack them later in the game and get us off the field."

NIU closes out the regular season with a weekend series against the University of Buffalo with a doubleheader Saturday beginning at 1 pm and a single game Sunday at 12 pm.

"The season hasn't gone how we've wanted it to and we just want to finish strong," Sutcliffe said. "We want to continue to get our players some experience and we want to get better until the last out of the season so hopefully we can do that."

-NIU-