Huskies pitcher Jolene Heller gave up a solo home run in the first inning as the softball team lost 5-0 to Purdue on Sunday.

The Boilermakers then tacked on another solo homer in the second inning and put in three runs in the fifth inning to shut out the Huskies, who only had two hits for the game.

“For five innings, this was a good game,” said NIU coach Donna Martin. “We had a problem stranding runners all weekend, and it happened again today. We are all very frustrated right now, but hopefully we will show some character the next couple of weeks.”

The Huskies (0-5) dropped their second game to the Boilermakers at the Auburn Invitational after losing to Purdue 2-1 in their first matchup Saturday.

NIU had a chance to take that game into extra innings as Gretchen Szymski delivered a pinch-hit single. Christy Johnson tried to move Szymski’s runner, Kelly Redican, past second base with a sacrifice bunt, but she was tagged out at third, said third base coach Kevin Welch.

“I didn’t do a good job of coaching third base,” Welch said. “Sometimes you’re going to make mistakes like that. Now I just have to learn from it. I got a little too aggressive. Sometimes you’re going to win from aggressiveness, but it backfired today.”

Auburn defeated the Huskies 7-2 in their second game Saturday. The Tigers got on the board quickly with three runs in the first inning and tacked on another run in the third. The Huskies missed out on the shutout with two scores in the bottom of the sixth.

In Friday’s action, the Huskies lost to to Syracuse 7-3 in the first game and Ohio State 8-1 in the second.

“We were able to play a lot of people today and our freshman pitchers got some good work in,” Welch explained. “We played well at times, but we weren’t able to string hits together when we needed to. Syracuse and Ohio State were both able to do that. It’s a matter of

consistency both offensively and defensively.”