One can win a Horizon League regular season conference title, another can put themselves in a position to win one.
A big weekend looms for the Northern Kentucky University baseball and softball teams.
SOFTBALL
The softball team hosts Youngstown State in a three-game set starting on Friday as they sit a half game behind Oakland entering the weekend. Oakland takes on Purdue-Fort Wayne. The Norse are 12-7 in league play, Oakland sitting at 12-6.
It’s quite the weekend filled with intrigue on the softball diamond in the Horizon League, seven of the nine conference teams within 2.5 games of first place.
“We got all the scenarios sent to us the other day and honestly I don’t want to look at them,” Norse coach Kathryn Gleason said. “We just need to take care of ourselves. If we do that, we don’t have to worry about any of that.”
It’s quite the accomplishment for the Norse softball team to be in this position. The team was sitting at 4-6 in conference play after being swept by Robert Morris on April 8, outscored 12-0 in the series.
“We had a conversation of what we need to do. We put ourselves in that situation and that was a turning point for us. We know we have a championship team and mindset and constantly talk about it and learn about it,” Gleason said.
A series win over IUPUI followed and then a magical weekend happened.
NKU not only swept Detroit, but pulled off the unthinkable as Lauryn Hicks pitched a no-hitter and teammate Alicia Flores followed with one on the very next day in the second game of a doubleheader. It was the first two no-hitters in program history in the Division I era.
The team has won eight of nine that started with the series win over IUPUI, the lone loss to Kentucky in that span. The pitching has been lights out, allowing 15 runs during that span, nine of them in the 9-0 loss to UK.
Take away the outing against UK, Hicks has been nearly un-hittable as of late. She’s tossed 36 innings in eight games and allowed just nine hits and two earned runs during that span while striking out 55 and walking seven.
“Lauryn had an early season injury and when she came back she’s had a fire in her. She’s a great teammate and wants to do everything for her team. When she has that fire in her eyes and using her changeup and curveball to get those outs, she’s tough to hit,” Gleason said.
In order to keep trending upward, hitting will need to continue to come around, they’ve averaged 3.2 runs per game this season and hit .226 as a team. Ella LeMonier leads the way with .345 average.
“Ella is a table setter ever since she’s walked on the field here. It all starts at the top. We’ve tweaked things and made so many different lineups trying to find that spark. Hitting is contagious and it can take the pressure off the next person,” Gleason said.
Following this weekend’s series and when everything gets figured out as far as seeding, the conference tournament starts May 10. Only the top six teams in the standings make the tournament, the top two teams getting a bye into the double-elimination tournament.
Whoever finishes with the higher seed in the standings between Green Bay, Youngstown State and Cleveland State will be the host of the conference tournament. If the tournament started today, Cleveland State would be the host.
The Norse have never made it to the NCAA Regional tournament.
BASEBALL
The baseball team plays a three-game series at Wright State starting on Friday as both are 15-6 in conference play with nine games remaining. The winner of the series will have the leg up with only two series left. They’re both four games clear of third place Oakland and a top-two seed means a bye in the first round of the conference tournament to be played at Wright State starting on May 24.
Wright State took the first series from the Norse, taking two out of three in Highland Heights March 31-April 2.
The Norse have already made waves as they hit the home stretch of the season. They reached 26 wins on Sunday, their most in program history in the Division I era. At 26-17, they have a chance to finish over .500 in a season for the first time in the Division I era that started in 2013.
“I love this team and the characters that it’s made up of. The staff and culture that we’ve built,” Norse head coach Dizzy Peyton said. “Seeing the fruits of our labor and seeing the outside world see these games with higher stakes shows we’re getting there.”
They’ve been bringing the bats this season, averaging 8.6 runs per game and hitting .300 as a team. The batting average ranks tied for 43rd nationally. They’ve ramped it up even more in conference play, averaging 9.6 runs per game in 21 Horizon League contests. Five everyday players are hitting over .300, led by Colton Kucera’s .403 average at the dish. As he does with pretty much every facet of managing the team, Peyton points to the process that’s made them a successful hitting team.
“It’s a process driven approach to our at-bats. We compile them and stack them all together. We want quality at-bats and minimize what we’re trying to do. We’d love to get a hit every time, but we take the pressure off by making it process oriented,” Peyton said.
While the hitting numbers have been nice, evidenced by the 54 runs they scored against Purdue Fort Wayne last weekend in a sweep, pitching will need to improve down the stretch. They’ve allowed 54 runs over the last five games.
After the weekend series that ends on Sunday, the Norse have six conference games left and two out of conference. They have a three-game set with Youngstown State next weekend at home and at Oakland May 18-20. Non-conference tilts with Butler at home on May 9 and at Louisville on May 16 round things out.
The Norse have never made the NCAA regional tournament since being eligible in 2016. A series win this weekend could point them toward that direction.