Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
NORTHERN ILLINOIS
Softball Loses To NIU, 7-5
April 01, 2000 | Softball
April 1, 2000
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - Northern Illinois rallied for three seventh-inning runs to record a 7-5 victory over the Bowling Green softball team and a sweep of Saturday's (April 1) Mid-American Conference doubleheader. The games were held at the BGSU Softball Field.
With the wins, the Huskies improved to 15-12 on the season. NIU, the defending MAC regular-season champions, moved to 4-0 in league action. BGSU dropped to 14-8 overall and 2-2 in the MAC.
The teams battled through three scoreless innings, with BGSU pitcher Andrea Genter and NIU's Christy Dalton allowing just one hit apiece during that time. The Huskies, though, broke through in the fourth, due to a pair of Falcon errors.
BGSU made 10 errors in the twinbill, and gave up a total of 10 unearned runs on the day. Four BG miscues and four unearned NIU runs came in the nightcap.
NIU's Dalton led off the fourth frame by reaching base on an error. After a walk, the Huskies' Gretchen Szymski attempted to bunt the runners over, but wound up reaching base herself when the throw to first was wild. Dalton scored on the play. The next batter grounded to second baseman Angie Domschot, who gunned down NIU's Suzie Rizek at the plate. After a groundout, the visitors got their only hit of the inning when Bethany Carroll laced a two-run single.
The Falcons struck for two runs in the bottom of the fourth. With one out, senior Erin Zwinck singled, and junior Nikki Rouhana walked. Both runners moved up on a passed ball, and Zwinck scored on a single by junior Lynsey Ebel. Rouhana took third, and Ebel moved up on the throw home. Freshman Libby Voshell singled to score Rouhana, with Ebel taking third. The next batter, freshman Kandice Machain, grounded to NIU shortstop Jill Carpenter, who threw home to cut down Ebel.
NIU got a single run in the fifth to take a 4-2 lead, and could have scored more if not for a fine play by Machain. With one out and Dalton on third base, Sara Youstra hit a fly ball down the right-field line. Machain made the catch, then gunned down Dalton attempting to score for a double play. In the bottom of that inning, the Falcons struck for three runs to take the lead. With one out, senior Colleen Bates drew a walk, and sophomore Renee Rosemeier singled to move Bates to second. Rosemeier had two hits in each of Saturday's games.
Zwinck followed with a two-run triple to right-center field, and Rouhana doubled to left field to plate Zwinck.
The Falcon lead held up until the top of the seventh. After the first batter was retired, NIU's Tara Davidson singled and moved up on a wild pitch. Dalton walked, and Rizek doubled to score Davidson with the tying run. Gretchen Szymski then hit a looping liner into the right-field gap, but Carmen Hitterdal made a nice running catch for the second out. On the play, however, Dalton was able to score the go-ahead run, giving Szymski a sacrifice fly. The Huskies doubled their lead when the next batter reached on a BG error to score Rizek from third.
BGSU got a leadoff single from Rosemeier in the bottom of the seventh, but could not do any further damage.
The Brown and Orange outhit the visitors by a 9-7 count. Rosemeier, Zwinck and Ebel each had two hits in the contest.
Dalton went all the way to pick up the win for NIU. She gave up five earned runs, walked four batters and struck out eight. Genter suffered the loss to fall to 3-4 on the year. In seven innings, she allowed three earned runs, walking three Huskies and fanning four.
The Falcons are in action on Sunday (April 2), heading to Oakland University for a non-league game. The contest is scheduled to begin at 4:00 p.m. BGSU is in the midst of a span which sees the team scheduled to play 13 games in nine days. The next nine games are on the road.
