Five home runs off the bats of the No. 10 Northwestern softball team sealed a 6-4 NIU loss in Evanston Wednesday.

The loss is the Huskies’ 12th straight, and the team hasn’t posted a win since April 4 when it beat Western Michigan at home. The team also has not posted a road win since March 12 when it beat St. Mary’s in a tournament held in California.

With the loss, NIU fell to 2-17 when playing away from Mary M. Bell Field in DeKalb.

Two Wildcat batters finished the day with a pair of home runs off Huskie pitcher Joreigh Landers. Landers allowed six runs in as many innings to be counted with the loss. Landers also struck out five and walked one in the appearance.

Despite the strong swings coming from the home team, NIU had a heavy offense of its own, featured by a home run from freshman Carly Norton to lead off the fifth inning. Norton went a perfect 3-3 at the plate and added her fourth home run of the season to place second on the team in long balls. Senior Bailey Ouellette leads the Huskies with five.

“Carly had a beautiful day at the plate,” said NIU head coach Lindsay Chouinard. “The top of the lineup did a good job. It’s all about finding a lineup that works.”

The lineup worked well as Norton, junior Kayla Kramer and Ouellette were all able to send the ball into the outfield for doubles. Norton and Kramer finished the game with one RBI while Ouellette tallied two.

“The middle of the lineup did a really good job of making adjustments and swinging early in the count,” Chouinard said. “We’ve been talking to them a lot about using their top hand and hitting the ball on the ground. That works well for us. We did a job today. We attacked well and were resilient. We kept fighting.”

NIU fought through the fifth inning to keep the game tied at four. However, back-to-back sixth-inning home runs from the Wildcats proved to be too much for the Huskies. Down 4-6, NIU was kept silent in the seventh inning, securing a Northwestern win.

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