[media-credit name=’DEREK MONTGOMERY/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]The University of Wisconsin softball team fell short against Northwestern in both games of a doubleheader Sunday, falling 8-7 and 3-2. With the losses, Wisconsin drops to 12-17 on the season and 3-5 in the Big Ten.

After suffering a sweep at the hands of the nation’s No. 1 team, Michigan, Friday and Saturday, Wisconsin was hoping to bounce back against No. 18 Northwestern, in arguably its toughest weekend of the season.

Wisconsin took a 3-0 lead in the bottom half of the second inning of Sunday’s first game thanks to a two-run single with the bases loaded by sophomore center fielder Sam Polito.

Northwestern struck back in the top of the third when Wildcat right fielder Erin Mobley hit a two-run homerun off UW sophomore pitcher Eden Brock to make the score 3-2.

Wisconsin answered with a two-out rally in the fourth inning. With two down, Polito came up with senior left fielder Anastasia Miller on third and drove her in with an infield single that went no further than four feet in front of the plate. Freshman first baseman Katie Hnatyk then laced a single to right, and both runners advanced one base on an error. Senior shortstop Kris Zacher then drew a walk, as ball four got past the catcher, allowing Polito to scamper home. Senior catcher Boo Gillette then walked, but not before Zacher stole second. Northwestern’s pitcher then balked before throwing her next pitch, allowing Hnatyk to score and giving Wisconsin a 6-2 lead.

But the Wildcats quickly responded with a three-run fifth inning, before tying the score in the sixth, despite the defensive play of the game by Wisconsin. With a runner on second, Wildcat shortstop Stephani Churchwell crushed a double that hit off the top of the wall. The Wildcat runner attempted to score on the play, but Miller made a great relay throw to freshman third baseman Joey Daniels, who fired a perfect strike to Gillette at home to throw out the runner at the plate. Mobley drove in Churchwell, however, to make the score 6-6.

Wisconsin managed to get runners on second and third with only one out in the bottom half of the inning, but the rally stalled, and Northwestern took the lead in the seventh, when a pair of UW errors, their third and fourth of the game, led to a pair of two-out runs in the inning.

“Four errors in the first game, when you know the ball is going to put in play, you just have to get yourself up mentally and do a better job defensively,” Badger head coach Karen Gallagher said.

Wisconsin closed the gap to one in the bottom of the seventh when Miller homered to right-center, her fifth blast of the season, but would draw no closer, falling 8-7.

In game two, Wisconsin fell behind early, giving up a two-out, two-run single to Churchwell, who ended the day 7-for-8 with two doubles, three runs and three RBIs. Churchwell’s lazy fly down the right-field line allowed the runners on second and third to score easily.

Wisconsin answered the next inning, with Polito drawing a one-out walk to bring up Hnatyk. The freshman took the first pitch she saw and deposited it beyond the wall in left center for her third homerun of the season, tying the score at 2-2.

With the game knotted up, the contest quickly became a pitchers duel. Wisconsin senior Katie Layne and Northwestern’s Eileen Canney combined to allow only five hits through the rest of the game. Layne cruised after giving up the two runs in the second, striking out six and only allowing three hits.

Wisconsin was equally unable to get to Canney after Hnatyk’s blast, managing only two hits the rest of the game.

A crucial play came in the Northwestern half of the fifth inning, when the Wildcats loaded the bases with no outs. Catcher Jamie Dotson blooped a single to left, allowing a run to score. However, a base-running error by Northwestern allowed the Badgers to throw out a runner at the plate as part of a double play, keeping the Wildcat damage to just one run.

That one run would be the difference, however, as UW failed to create a threat in the final two frames, dropping their fifth game in a row and suffering a sweep on the weekend.

“Eden Brock and Katie Layne did their job today, and all weekend,” Gallagher said. “Eden gave up a lot of hits, but they weren’t hits that hurt us. What hurt us was not playing solid defense behind them.”

Gallagher was disappointed with the four losses, but was encouraged that UW played the top competition in the conference very tough and potentially could have gone 3-1 on the weekend.

“When the luck is with you, it’s with you, and it wasn’t for us this weekend,” Gallagher said. “You look at who is stepping up; it is the younger players. All in all, I thought we played very competitive ball. When you are losing one-run ball games to the No.1 and No. 18, you have to take what you can out of that. I feel good about the rest of the year; we just have to get back on a roll.”