For the second-straight game, the Wisconsin softball team’s late-game heroics fell short as No. 23 Illinois’ Jenna Hall hit a two-out solo home run in the bottom of the seventh to beat the Badgers, 5-4. Wisconsin scored two runs in the top of the seventh inning to tie the game at 4-4.

Pinch-hitter Anastasia Miller, in the first official bat of her career, took her first pitch straight back over the center field wall to pull the Badgers within one at 4-3 with one out in the seventh. Yesterday, Miller stepped up to the plate for the first time as a Badger and walked.

With two outs in the seventh, Kris Zacher doubled to right center field, and Mandy Liles stepped up to the plate. Facing two strikes, Liles blooped a single into shallow center field. Illinois center fielder Rachelle Coriddi bobbled the ball slightly, but the speedy Zacher scored easily.

The end-of-game action matched the start; all the scoring took place in the first, second and seventh innings. Wisconsin took an early lead in the top of the first with a two-run home run by freshman Emily Friedman. Friedman sent an Amanda Fortune pitch over the left center field wall.

Friedman, who hit a three-run double in the bottom of the seventh Saturday, stepped up with one out and Liles on first. Liles reached with a soft chopper to the second and beat the throw to first. Friedman’s first career homer as a Badger gave UW a 2-0 lead.

Responding to the Badgers in similar fashion, the Illini tied the game up in the bottom of the second with a two-run shot. Erin Montgomery sent an Andrea Kirchberg toss over the right center field wall with Laura Zobrist on first. Zobrist pinch-ran for Jenna Hall, who walked to start the inning.

Illinois stayed in the inning with a couple walks as Kirchberg was called for a couple of illegal pitches. Down in the bottom of the order, the Illini took back-to-back walks while two-straight singles from the top of the UI lineup put two more runs on the board. Kirchberg struck out Hall with the bases loaded to end the inning.

After all the action through two innings, both pitchers settled down and got used to retiring the side. Including the last out of the second, Fortune retired nine in a row until Zacher singled to shallow right field in the fifth. Starting with a strikeout to end the second inning, Kirchberg sat down 10-straight Illini batters until Montgomery doubled to lead off the sixth.

Boo Gillette, Zacher and Liles each tallied two hits on the day, while Friedman, Miller and Natalie Phillips each connected once to give UW nine hits on the day.

On Sunday, UW scored three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning with two outs to pull within one of host Northwestern but fell 6-5 Saturday afternoon at the Sharon J. Drysdale Field in Evanston, Ill. The Badgers fall to 14-21 overall, 3-9 Big Ten.

Down 6-2, freshman Emily Friedman cracked a bases-loaded hit into the right center field gap with two outs in the bottom of the seventh to clear the bases. Liles started the rally by firing a double down the left-field line with one out. Boo Gillette walked and Erin Barnharst singled to load the bases for Friedman.

Northwestern loaded the bases with three-straight hits to open the game and took a 1-0 lead with a sacrifice fly by Cindy Muran. With runners on second and third and Brett Nakabayashi on third inching for home, Boo Gillette’s heady play caught Nakabayashi between home and third in a run down. After one back-and-forth, Zacher received a pass from Gillette and applied the tag to Nakabayshi for the second out. Jamie Dotson grounded out to Katie Layne to end the inning.

NU put runs on the board in the second and third innings with a couple of doubles. In the second a leadoff double helped NU to a 2-0 lead, while in the third, a one-out double led to a 3-0 Wildcat edge. Northwestern added its fourth and fifth runs in the top of the fifth and sixth innings, respectively. NU’s Muran hit what would be the game-winning home run in the top of the seventh to give Northwestern its crucial sixth run.

The Badgers got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the fifth inning. Diana Consolmagno led off the inning with a sharp liner into left center field. Consolmagno took second on the hit and moved to third on a ground out by Kaitlin Reiss. Natalie Philips was plunked and with runners on the corners, Kris Zacher batted a ball to the shortstop. Ashley Crane bobbled the ball and Philips advanced safely, Zacher took first and Consolmagno scored.

Erin Barnharst got the Badgers’ first hit of the day, a bloop single into shallow right field in the fourth inning, and tallied a run in the sixth with her team-high fourth home run. Barnharst stepped to the plate with one out in the sixth and sent a pitch over the right center field wall to make it 5-2. UW continued to threaten with Emily Friedman following with a double to the center field warning track, but two ground outs ended the inning.

— compiled from staff reports