It was another long weekend of conference play for the Illinois softball team (11-21, 1-8 Big Ten).

Illinois was swept by Northwestern (19-14, 5-3 Big Ten) in three games in Evanston, Ill., on the weekend but showed signs of progress in each game.

“It was a rough weekend for all of us, but at the end of the day, we all got better as a team,” freshman Allie Bauch said. “We made improvements but we still could do a lot better.”

The Illini opened the weekend Friday with an offensive performance that featured 11 base runners in the game. 

Despite the Illini owning the base paths, the Wildcats stranded every single runner and won 8-0.

Illinois was unable to get clutch hits in any of the games on the weekend, which shut down nearly all of its scoring threats. Northwestern, on the other hand, capitalized on almost all its chances, scoring early and often.

“We have to give a lot of credit to Northwestern,” head coach Terri Sullivan said. “Any chance there was for them to make a run, they really took advantage of it.”

With 30 mph winds on Saturday, the Wildcats took advantage, hitting multiple home runs on the day and winning their second game of the series by an identical score of 8-0.

“They’re really good hitters,” senior pitcher Pepper Gay said. “They took advantage of our mistake pitches, had a lot of home runs, and when they had runners on, they were able to score them.”

After being able to put the first two games behind them, the Illini came out swinging on Sunday and scored in the first to put themselves ahead 1-0.

“We showed resiliency and fought hard,” Gay said.

After Illinois’ first inning run, the Wildcats took control, scoring seven unanswered to win the game 7-1.

Illinois was disappointed in the way it played on the weekend, especially in its hitting. In order to improve, the Illini will continue to work on situational hitting, trying to mimic in-game scenarios.

“Our mechanics are fine, but we need to work on situational hitting with pressure on the hitter and runners on base,” Bauch said. “Anyone can hit with no runners on, but we need to get timely hits with runners on.”

Sullivan said even though it didn’t look close, the difference between the Wildcats and Illini on the weekend wasn’t more than a few clutch hits. She was impressed by her team’s determination. 

“We got out there after getting it handed to us on Friday and Saturday,” Sullivan said. “We had great energy and enthusiasm in the third game and that was good.”

Illinois will have a chance to turn it around Tuesday as they face Eastern Illinois at home. Gay said in order to win, the team will just need to keep working.

“Anyone can win on any given day, so we have to get back to playing our ball and keep improving all parts of our game each day.”

Nicholas can be reached at [email protected] or

@IlliniSportsGuy.