Second place seems to be a comfortable position for the NIU softball team.

Once again, the Huskies took a tournament runner-up trophy for the second consecutive weekend.

Game one of the University of Michigan Tournament pitted the Huskies against DePaul. Trailing 4-3 in the bottom of the seventh, NIU came back to score two of its own for a 5-4 victory.

Dawn Worden started the inning for the Huskies with a walk and was able to score on Julie Sexton’s triple. DePaul intentionally walked Lisa Gilfoy to face Jeanne Richeal. With the count at 3-0, DePaul’s Suzanne Wiegner threw a wild pitch, allowing Sexton to trot home with the winning run.

The victory was more than just a good start for the tourney. It was also head coach Dee Abrahamson’s 300th career victory.

“It’s great to get to 300,” Abrahamson said, “but it simply means that I have a lot of people to share the credit with.”

Abrahamson went on to notch win No. 301 later that afternoon when the Huskies defeated Michigan 6-5 in eight innings.

After giving up two runs in the first, NIU came back to take a 5-3 lead after three. Michigan added another run in the fourth and eventually tied the ballgame in the bottom of the seventh.

But Gilfoy took the first pitch of the eight inning out of the park to give the Huskies a lead they wouldn’t surrender.

Sunday morning, NIU took on Ohio, the final contestant in the tourney. The Huskies needed no dramatic finish in this game and blew out Ohio 16-2.

The win moved the Huskies to 3-0 in the tourney, and put them in the championship game against Michigan that afternoon.

The Huskies’ winning ways ended however as Michigan scored the only run of the contest in the sixth inning to notch a 1-0 victory and the tournament championship.

“It was a great game,” Abrahamson said. “Unfortunately, we didn’t get the hits when we needed them. We played better, so I can’t complain about second place.”

The Huskies had a chance in the top of the seventh, having runners on second and third with two outs. But Gilfoy, who had homered a day earlier, flew out to end the game.

The tournament left the Huskies with a 14-13 overall record.