The Huskies softball team will try to snap a three-game losing streak this weekend at the Buckeye Duals in Columbus, Ohio.

NIU (7-14 overall) has lost 12 of its last 15 games heading into this weekend.

At the Buckeye Duals, the Huskies will face Oakland (6-8) at 5 p.m. and Ohio State (12-7) at 7 p.m. on Saturday. On Sunday, NIU will take on Michigan State (13-10) at noon and Robert Morris (1-16) at 2 p.m.

“It’s a nice way to measure ourselves,” NIU coach Donna Martin said. “All of the teams are in our region, so it counts on our RPI. It’s nice to compete because we don’t see these teams too often.”

The Huskies come in hitting .213 as a team and average nearly four runs a game. MSU, OSU and Oakland all have team ERAs less than 3.00. OSU has the lowest team ERA of 1.48. All three teams score more than four runs per game.

“We are definitely going to face some strong pitching,” Martin said. “It’s going to be a good tune-up before the conference season starts.”

Robert Morris has a team ERA of 7.55 and scores 2.47 runs per game. After winning its first game, RMC has gone on to lose 16 in a row.

“Robert Morris is looking for a win any way they can get it,” Martin said. “Teams like this are dangerous; they are like a 16 seed in the NCAA tournament, and you’re the one seed. A lot of the time you don’t want to play them.”

Amy Krahula (2-4) and Kathy Dearborn (3-4) will take the mound this weekend for the Huskies. The two have combined to pitch 97 of the 143 innings for the Huskies.

Kelly Redican (.288) and Kelly Drozd (.281) are the only Huskies batting over .280.

Redican leads the team with 19 hits, five doubles, 26 total bases and 10 RBIs.

Shelby Bernard has hit two of NIU’s five home runs.