HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. – Northern Kentucky softball takes a break from Horizon League action after a jam-packed week that saw the Norse play three different League series, taking on in-state foe Eastern Kentucky for a single game on Tuesday, April 18. First pitch against the Colonels is slated for 4 p.m. ET from Grein Softball Stadium.
LAST TIME OUT: NKU had a busy four days after weather forced a Tuesday-Wednesday series to become a Wednesday-Thursday series against Youngstown State, immediately followed by a Friday-Saturday three-game set at League-leading UIC. The Norse rose to the challenge, going 3-3 over the four days, including the program's first-ever series win in the Horizon League before ending the stretch on a high note with a 4-3 eight-inning win over the Flames.
Against the Penguins, NKU invoked the run rule for the first two times this season to claim the first series win since the 2015 season, and the first in conference play since 2013. Senior pitcher
Charlie Nolen tossed the first shutout of the season in the series opener as the Norse won in six innings, 9-0. YSU claimed the second game of the series, 6-4, but the Norse stormed back for an 11-3 rubber match win in five innings. Junior third baseman
Sydney Ferrante stole the show in the series finale, driving in six runs for a new Division I-era program record.
NKU carried its momentum into the UIC series, taking the Flames to 12 innings in the first game of the series before UIC escaped with a 1-0 victory. Nolen pitched the full game, surrendering just one walk. UIC clinched the series in the second game with a 6-1 win, but NKU avoided the sweep in the finale, handing the Flames just their second loss of the League season in eight innings, 4-3.
Taylor Brummell unloaded the first home run of her NKU career to put the Norse up 2-0 early in the game before UIC pushed an eighth inning by tying it up in the seventh. NKU used RBI singles from
Kara Meter and
Zahrya McFarland to complete the upset.
SCOUTING EASTERN KENTUCKY: The Colonels are the third team from the Ohio Valley Conference that NKU faces this season, having previously dropped a single game to SIUE before splitting a doubleheader at Morehead State. EKU enters Tuesday sporting an 18-23 overall record, including 6-5 in conference play. The Colonels are coming off a successful outing in Nashville, where the team scored 12 runs in each game while holding Tennessee State to three total runs in a doubleheader on April 14.
Sophomore infielder Rachel Minogue tops the four Colonels who are batting over .300 with a .423 clip, leading the team in hits with 52 while slugging .642. Her batting average tops the OVC and ranks 34th nationally, and the returning All-OVC honoree ranks eighth nationally with 15 doubles on the season, as does junior third baseman Johnkyria Alston. The tandem has accounted for 40 percent of EKU's RBI, with Alston driving in 37 while Minogue has recorded 36 RBI to lead their conference in the category.
Behind the powerful bats of Alston and Minogue, EKU ranks ninth in the nation in doubles per game, with 1.66 a contest. The Colonels also boast a high slugging percentage at .448, while sitting just under a .300 team batting average. In the circle, EKU relies primarily on Mollie Pualick and Alex Sallberg, who have combined for 204 of 260.2 innings pitched.
EKU leads the all-time series, 4-2, and the Norse are searching for the first win against the Colonels since transitioning to Division I. When NKU traveled to Richmond, Kentucky, last season, EKU handed the Norse a 9-0 road loss on March 29, 2016.
