SAN DIEGO – After a long offseason, the Northern Illinois University softball team celebrated the 2023 opening weekend with a pair of games at the SDSU Season Kickoff hosted by San Diego State. NIU started the day with a thrilling 5-4 win over Memphis before dropping its contest to No. 22 Arizona State.
"For our first day out, our team couldn't have had a better outing," said head NIU coach
Christina Sutcliffe. "We executed the little things, and our bench was impactful. Our pitching staff did a great job working off each other and keeping our opponents off balance."
HOW IT HAPPENED
In the Huskies' win over the Tigers, NIU showed no signs of offseason rust as they scored five unanswered runs through the first five innings before Memphis could get on the board.
Emily Dato (Munster, Ind./Munster) took command of the defense in the pitcher's circle while
Courtney James (Fishers, Ind./Fishers) scored the Huskies' first run of 2023 in the first inning. James reached home plate following
Kelly Walinski's (Worth, Ill./Marist) fielder's choice.
In the same inning,
Ally Rodriguez (Romeoville, Ill./Plainfield East) and Walinski, after
Sam Mallinder's (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield North) single to center field, scored two more runs for NIU to give the Huskies a 3-0 lead.
The Huskies' first hit for extra bases of the season came in the ensuing frame when
Cara Cruthers (Bartlett, Ill./South Elgin) blasted a triple to right center on a 1-0 count.
Three batters later and with one out, the speedy designed player Cruthers, along with Rodriguez on first after she walked, got the nod from coach Sutcliffe to attempt a double steal. Both runners executed it perfectly, inflating NIU's lead to 4-0.
In the third inning
Fiona Crane (Evergreen Park, Ill./Mother McAuley), in just the second at-bat of her collegiate career, rifled a triple down the left field line.
Ellis Erickson (Lutz, Fla./Freedom) laid down a flawless sac bunt to score Crane, giving NIU a 5-0 lead.
Memphis saved their bats for the fifth inning though as the Tigers scored twice off a double to left field and once more after a triple to left center.
With NIU up 5-3 in the fifth,
Lily Cassell (LaGrange, Ohio/Keystone) was called in to relive Dato. The freshman allowed just one unearned run through the final two innings in her first appearance, marking her inaugural save in a Huskie uniform.
After a short intermission, the Huskies took the field against nationally-ranked Arizona State to close opening day.
After NIU fell behind 2-0 early, Cruthers put the Huskies in the race with a RBI single in the third inning, scoring Crane.
Later in the fifth, Walinski drilled a sac fly to center field, allowing Erickson to tag up and knot the game 2-2. In the ensuing at-bat, a Sun Devil error helped James score, giving NIU the lead.
The Huskies held onto their lead until the bottom of the seventh. A one out Arizona State solo homer tied the game 3-3 before Yanni Acuna ended the game in walk-off fashion thanks to her RBI double to right center.
NOTABLES
- Crane was 2-6 on the day and logged two RBI
- Cruthers was also 2-6 and had one RBI
- Mallinder was 2-6 and batted in two runners
- Erickson was 1-3 and had one RBI
- NIU tied its all-time series with Memphis 1-1 after today's win
- James and Crane scored a pair of runs each to pace the Huskies
- Crane and Cruthers gained four bags each
- Dato is 1-0 in the circle this season
- Cassell secured the first save of her career
- Batters had just a .278 batting average against NIU pitchers
UP NEXT
The Huskies return to the diamond tomorrow for another two games. NIU will face CSUN at 5 p.m. CT and Notre Dame at/around 6:30 p.m. CT.
