Softball got its hopes for its second midweek game washed away with the rain Wednesday afternoon, which means it will head into a MAC weekend with an extra day of rest.

The Huskies (13-26, 3-7 MAC) will take on Kent State (19-14-1, 9-3 MAC) in a double header on Friday, and then head off to Buffalo (12-24, 5-7 MAC) for a two-game series spanning Saturday and Sunday.

The Huskies head into their conference action after a slugfest against Northwestern that saw them plate the third-most runs of the season with nine. Kent State will come into the double-header as winners of five of its last seven games, going 5-1-1 in that stretch. This will also be the Golden Flashes’ fourth double header in a row, as they have had a double header on April 9, 12 and 14.

Buffalo will come into the game as winners of five of its last seven games as well. In the last five games Buffalo and its opponents have combined to score just 10 runs in that stretch.

With the rain having delayed the Huskies’ action on Wednesday, head coach Christina Sutcliffe believes this gives her team, especially her pitching staff, a break in terms of scheduling.

The Huskies were to have played two midweek games back to back, and then four over the weekend.

“It will for sure help our kids,” Sutcliffe said. “It will help the grind of this week with the travel and everything, so that’s a good thing.”

Despite the positive aspect of helping with rest, Sutcliffe said she could have gotten an outdoor practice in if she had known that the rain would have come down the way it did.

Looking at the matchups over the weekend, Sutcliffe believes there is one concern that may stick out more than others.

“Our offense is rolling so I think we need to continue to concentrate on getting out of the big inning,” Sutcliffe said. “That’s kind of been our theme of giving up the big inning and trying to play come back from that. If we can minimize those, keep them to one or two run innings, we should be alright.”

This weekend marks a few things for the Huskies’ season, as it is the last extended road trip of the year, with only one more road game remaining after this weekend. Sitting in second-to-last place in the MAC West, the Huskies need to start picking up ground on the undefeated Ball State squad, which is 12-0 in the MAC, and Central Michigan, which is 8-2.

Sutcliffe believes taking the one-team-at-a-time approach is really a truism if NIU hopes to fight its way back into contention.

“We’re going to have to go into every weekend from here on out trying to win every weekend,” Sutcliffe said. “Win at least three of the four games is our goal. If we pick one team off every weekend for the remaining of the season we’re in the MAC tournament.”