CLEARWATER, FLA. – Coastal Carolina’s softball (9-10) fell to Northern Illinois, 7-2, in its second game of the day at the Speedline Tournament, Mar. 12 at the Eddie C. Moore Complex

Northern Illinois threatened in second inning as Ellen Stoddard and Megan Meyer double and singled to put runners on second and third with two outs. But Coastal starter Meagen Johnson (Georgetown, S.C.) got out of trouble by inducing Northern’s Lauren Von Holst to strike out.

NIU opened the scoring in the fourth inning as Toni Del Toro doubled. Stoddard followed with a single up the middle to put runners on first and third with one out. Von Host’s single through the left side drove in the first run of the game. A Coastal error brought in the second run of the frame. The third run of the frame was brought in by a Kelly Park groundout.

Northern’s offense was on the attack again in the top of the fifth as Kelly Drzod let off the inning with a triple and came in to score on a fielder choice by Elyse Jamrozy. Jamrozy came in to score on a single by Meyer for the fith run of the game.

Coastal offense finally got on the board in the fifth inning as Kristina Sheppard (Galveston, Texas/Ball) tripled with one out and came in to score on the double by junior Delane Grainger (Scottsdale, Ariz/Chaparral (Phoenix College)) as CCU narrowed the gap to 5-1.

But NIU continued to hit adding two more runs with a tally in the sixth and another in the seventh to make the score 7-1 going to the final inning.

In the seventh the Lady Chantcleers attempted to muster a comeback as Irene Finley (Wilmington, N.C./John T. Hoggard) walked to open the inning and advanced to second on a groundout. Finley reached third on a single by junior Lynee Hastings (Burbank, Calif./John Burroughs) that put runners on the corners with one out. Finley came in to score on the ground out from sophomore Carla Hood (Marion, S.C./Marion). But that was all the offense the Lady Chants could muster in the frame as Northern Ilinois defeated Coastal 7-2.

Taking the loss for Coastal was Johnson who saw her record fall to 1-1 on the season. The win went to Northern’s Lindsey LaChiana who raises her record to 4-2 on the season.

Coastal will complete its play in the Speedline Tournament tommorrow, Mar. 13 as it takes on Western Michigan at 9 a.m.