After suffering a loss to DePaul on Wednesday, the NIU softball team bounced back this weekend to go 3-1 against MAC rivals Miami (OH) and Ball State to close out the regular season.

The Huskies (26-25 overall, 13-7 MAC) split a double-header with Miami (30-20 overall, 13-9 MAC) on Friday losing the first game 1-0 and winning the second 4-1.

In game one against Miami, the Huskies were shut down on offense by pitcher Jessica Simpson, who threw a no-hitter.

The Huskies offense remained quiet in game two until the fifth inning when they put up four runs.

The big hit in the inning came off the bat of senior Zoe Sinner, who had a two-RBI double to right field to give the Huskies a 4-1 lead.

“We could just never get the big hit in game one,” said softball head coach Lindsay Chouinard. “But we broke through in game two and got some big hits and that was good to see.”

Junior Morgan Bittner shut down Miami for the rest of the game to secure the win for the Huskies.

NIU’s pitching staff performed well against Miami, only giving up two runs, one of which was unearned, in two games.

NIU played Ball State (33-21 overall, 13-7 MAC) on Saturday and Sunday and won both games, 13-5 and 6-4.

In game one against Ball State, the Huskie’s offense erupted. Trailing 4-1 in the fourth inning, junior Krista Matsui hit a three-run homer to tie the game at 4-4.

In the fifth inning, the Huskies scored nine runs to make the score 13-4 to put the game away. Ball State would add one more run to make the final score 13-5.

In game two, the Huskies got timely hitting when they needed it most. Trailing 4-3 in the seventh inning, freshman Shelby Miller hit a game-winning, three-run home run to make the score 6-4.

Bittner again secured the win for the Huskies, closing out Ball State in the seventh inning and earning her 10th win of the season.

“Morgan is the anchor of our pitching staff,” Chouinard said. “It is extremely important to have her back.”

The Huskies completed MAC play with the pair of weekend series and will play in the conference tournament that begins on Wednesday.

“We showed strong play against the MAC this weekend,” Chouinard said. “We showed that we can compete with the better teams in our conference and we have a lot of confidence going into the tournament.”