Bulls Complete Weekend Sweep With 6-2 Win At Northern Illinois

Sunday, April 27

DeKalb, IL

2 pm

25-20, 9-5

Northern Illinois

20-27, 8-10

Buffalo

Northern Illinois

Bulls Complete Weekend Sweep With 6-2 Win At Northern Illinois

4/27/2014 12:00:00 AM | Softball

Box Score

DEKALB, IL - The 2014 University at Buffalo softball team continued to write history on Sunday afternoon as for the first time since joining the MAC in 2001 the Bulls swept a four-game weekend road series with a 6-2 win at Northern Illinois. The victory was UB's 25th of the season, tying the 2004 and 2009 teams for the most wins in school history. The Bulls also improved to 9-5 in MAC play.

Senior Tori Speckman pitched another solid game and got some big defensive plays behind her. The Bulls got out to the early lead in the contest, scoring four runs in the top of the second inning and they never trailed in the contest.

Freshman Ashton Earnhardt led off the inning with a double and the Bulls put runners on the corners with nobody out. Five straight hits to begin the inning scored four runs, including run-scoring singles from Karly Nevez and Hayley Barrow before Sammi Gallardo capped it off with a double to left center, scoring both Tori Pettine and Barrow. NIU scored one in the bottom of the second and the game remained at 4-1 until the top of the seventh.

Senior Holly Luciano singled up the middle to start the inning and moved to second on a ground out. She came in to score on a double to right center from senior Heather Ryder, who was replaced on the bases by sophomore Kenzie Koch. Koch moved to third on a groundout and then came in to score on a wild pitch to give the Bulls a 6-1 lead.

The Huskies scored one in the bottom of the seventh on a two-out triple, but a fly out ended the game and completed the sweep for the Bulls.

"Today our mission was to finish the weekend," said head coach Trena Peel. "We came out with an aggressive mentality in the box. We knew that Northern was a good hitting team, but we were determined to be great on defense. Holly and Karly made some great plays in the outfield and TP [Tori Pettine] took away hits up the middle. I'm very proud of my wounded warriors for playing with heart all weekend."

Speckman improved to 17-11 on the season as she picked up her 43rd career victory, moving into sole possession of first place in school history. She allowed just four hits over seven innings while striking out six and allowing just two runs. Luciano led the offense as she went 3-for-4, one of eight different players in the lineup to record a hit. Gallardo's double moved her hitting streak to 10 games, tying a season high.

The Bulls will close out the regular season next weekend as they head to Kent State beginning on Saturday afternoon. UB will use the final weekend to continue working on positioning for the upcoming Mid-American Conference Tournament.