Big Inning Downs Flashes in Sunday Rubber Match

Sunday, April 9

Kent, Ohio

1:00 p.m.

Kent State University

15-21, 5-6

Northern Illinois

18-15, 6-5

Northern Illinois

Kent State

Photo by: David Dermer

Big Inning Downs Flashes in Sunday Rubber Match

4/9/2017 4:24:00 PM | Softball

Box Score

Box Score (pdf)

KENT, Ohio – Kent State dropped the final game of its Mid-American Conference series against Northern Illinois, 8-6, Sunday at the Diamond at Dix. The Golden Flashes allowed six runs in the top of the third inning to fall behind by four and were unable to get closer than a run the rest of the game.

Kent State (15-21, 5-6 MAC) continued to swing the bat well. The Flashes scored six runs in all three games against the Huskies and collected eight hits to finish the series with a .303 batting average, which is 85 points higher than its season average entering the weekend.

"It's a disappointing outing. We scored a lot of runs to only come away with one win this weekend," said head coach Eric Oakley. "Unfortunately, we can't get all three phases of the game to work together. I'm happy with the run production, but our defense hurt us yesterday and our pitching hurt us today."

Junior Emily Dobbin and senior Maddy Grimm crushed solo homers to center field to give Kent State a 2-0 lead in the first inning.

Northern Illinois put six huge runs on the board to take control in the top of the third. Three walks and two singles tied the game, 2-2. A hit batter put the Huskies ahead and was followed by a single. A fielder's choice and another single brought in two more runs for a 6-2 NIU lead.

The Flashes got a run back in the bottom half of the inning, as sophomore Jen Cader beat out an infield single and Grimm was intentionally walked. After back-to-back fielder's choices, senior Janel Hayes delivered a two-out single up the middle to score Grimm.

Kayti Grable hit a solo home run with two outs in the fourth to give the Huskies a 7-3 lead.

A three-run blast by Cader got Kent State within 7-6 and put the go-ahead run at the plate after another intentional walk to Grimm. However, NIU got the next two batters to maintain the lead.

The Flashes had two runners aboard with one out in the sixth, but once again, were unable to manufacture a run.

An error allowed NIU to score an insurance run in the top of the seventh inning.

Ladines (7-12) totaled three strikeouts and allowed six earned runs on seven hits in 5.1 innings. She was replaced by Hayes with one out in the third inning and returned to start the fifth inning. Hayes tossed 1.2 innings and allowed one run on three hits.

Kent State will play the series rubber match at Ohio on Tuesday at 2 p.m.