SAN DIEGO – The Northern Illinois University softball team suffered a pair of losses on day two of the SDSU Season Kickoff. NIU dropped its opener against Notre Dame 8-2 and its closer versus CSUN via the same score.

"We continue to get better every rep we are getting out here," said head NIU coach Christina Sutcliffe. "We are seeing phenomenal play out of our outfield and we're excited to finish the weekend out with a quality team in SDSU."

After a scoreless first inning, Notre Dame (3-1) piled five runs on NIU to go ahead early in the second. Delaney Ostrowski (Geneseo, Ill./Geneseo) was called in to pitch and kept things calm before NIU scored a pair in the fourth inning.

Trinity Jones Estrada (Sylmar, Calif./John F. Kennedy) knocked a two RBI single through the right side, scoring Ellis Erickson (Lutz, Fla./Freedom) and Rylie Hartman (Kankakee, Ill./Herscher).

Lily Cassell (LaGrange, Ohio/Keystone) came in to pitch for Ostrowski in the fifth and Notre Dame responded quickly, scoring three runs on three hits.

With NIU down 8-2, the two teams traded blows for the remainder of the contest. The Huskies ended the game with two runs on six hits and one error while the Irish had eight runs on 11 hits and two errors.

Game two saw a competitive first four innings, but CSUN (2-3) eventually ran away with the game 8-2 after the Matadors lit up the scoreboard in the fifth inning.   

The contest began with CSUN's RBI double in the first inning, but the Huskie bats got going in the third when Ally Rodriguez (Romeoville, Ill./Plainfield East) scored Courtney James (Fishers, Ind./Fishers) on a sac fly.

In the fourth frame, after Sam Mallinder (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield North) blasted a triple to center field, two-way player Stewart knotted sent an RBI single down the right field line. Mallinder trotted home, knotting the game 2-2.

The Matadors regained momentum in their half of the inning with two runners scoring off a homer and RBI double.

With NIU down 4-2, Cassell and Emily Dato (Munster, Ind./Munster) both pitched the bottom half of the fifth, but CSUN cashed in on four runs, putting themselves out of reach as the final outs of the night were called.

NIU will face one more test tomorrow, tournament host San Diego State (3-1), at 1:30 p.m. CT. The game will stream live on YouTube.