DEKALB, Ill. – The University of Buffalo softball team combined for eight extra base hits, including four home runs, as it earned a doubleheader sweep over the Northern Illinois University softball team by scores of 8-5 (8 inn.) and 9-6 Saturday afternoon.

Despite the setbacks, Katie Keller (Geneva, Ill./Geneva), Courtney James (Fishers, Ind./Fishers), Bianca Barone (Machesney Park, Ill./Harlem) and Amberly Rodriguez (Romeoville, Ill./Plainfield) combined to each drive in a pair of runs for the Huskies while Keller and Sam Mallinder (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield North) had three hits apiece.

"Obviously that wasn't our best performance today," Huskies head coach Christina Sutcliffe said. "With that being said we did a nice job of scoring multiple runs in back to back innings. Unfortunately in the first game we had to come back but it came up short after they punched back again."

NIU fell behind 4-1 in Game 1, but worked its way back to claim a 5-4 advantage after it plated one in the fifth and three in the sixth. Rodriguez came across on a wild pitch in the fifth and James roped a two-run double to left center field followed by Rodriguez' run-scoring single in the sixth. After UB tied the game on a solo home run in the seventh, the Huskies then had an opportunity to win the game in walk off fashion in the bottom half after Keller led off with a single, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt and third on a double from Mallinder, but Buffalo's center fielder unfortunately cut down Keller at the plate to end the threat. Buffalo then plated three in the eighth on a run-scoring single and a two-RBI single to decide the final verdict.

"Our offense did well and it's definitely gotten better the last half of the season," Sutcliffe said. "Claire (Norred) and Delaney (Ostrowski) have kind of settled in these last two series with Western Michigan and now Buffalo in the pitcher's circle and have done a nice job of keeping us in games. We're making improvements it's just unfortunate that it's a little too short still."

Caitlyn Shumaker (Bellefontaine, Ohio/North Dakota) and Mahy each had a stolen base while Norred fanned eight batters in nine innings of work across both games for the Huskies (16-28, 9-18), who wrap up the series and the season with a 12 pm contest tomorrow afternoon.

"We just need to figure out how to get off the field and be a little crisper," Sutcliffe said. "We had a couple of sun balls there that we unfortunately weren't able to figure out and ironically that was probably our first sun game of the year. So we just need to come out with some energy and try to put all three parts of our game together to see what we can do."

-NIU-