Softball enters its final weekend of home games in the midst of a season-long three-game losing streak; it’s the third time this season the Huskies have lost three games in a row.

The Huskies (19-24) lost game one against the Loyola Ramblers (19-27), 4-3, Wednesday at Loyola Softball Park in Chicago. They dropped the nightcap, 10-9, in 10 innings.

Game one

The Huskies put up three runs in the top of the second inning, but they failed to push anything else across the plate in the opener and lost, 4-3.

Junior Bryanna Phelan got the Huskies on the board with an infield single in the second inning, driving in one run. Senior Nicole Gremillion followed with a single to right field that drove in two runs, one unearned.

The Huskies stranded two runners in the second inning and a total of six in the first game.

The Huskies were sent down in order three times in the first game, including two of the last three innings. They only had one base runner in the final three frames.

“Their pitcher threw a pretty good game,” said head coach Christina Sutcliffe. “… We had chances to win but couldn’t make the plays.”

The Ramblers scored their four runs on a two-run home run, an RBI double and a solo home run.

Game two

The Ramblers took game two, 10-9, as they won on a walk-off single in the bottom of the 10th inning.

The Huskies held a 9-4 lead heading to the bottom of the seventh, but the Ramblers took advantage of NIU errors and struck for five runs to tie the game, 9-9, and force extras.

“Our offense did a very good job,” Sutcliffe said. “We capitalized on their errors. When you’re going to the seventh inning up 9-4 you don’t expect to lose. We had four defensive errors in the seventh inning that cost us.

“… I thought we just shut down mentally and couldn’t rally after giving up that lead.”

The Huskies and the Ramblers combined to commit nine errors in the second game. Only eight of the combined 19 runs were earned.

The Huskies close out the home portion of their schedule with four games this weekend. They take on Kent State (21-15, 7-3 MAC) at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. Friday and Buffalo (21-20, 5-5 MAC) at 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday at Mary M. Bell Field.

“A lot of emotion goes into that final home weekend for [the seniors] with just playing in front of their crowd for the last time, but they know they have to take care of business,” Sutcliffe said. “We’re still chasing at this point, and they can’t allow a game to get away from them because of emotion.”