Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern Softball Splits With Purdue
4/14/2000 12:00:00 AM | Softball
April 14, 2000
WEST LAFAYETTE, IND. - The Northwestern softball team began its last Big Ten road trip of the season by splitting a doubleheader at Purdue. The Wildcats overwhelmed the Boilermakers in the opener, scoring 10 runs in the seventh inning to cap a 17-5 win. The second game, however, was as ugly for the Wildcats as the first game was pretty as five NU errors enabled Purdue to claim a 6-2 win. Northwestern stands at 16-17 overall (4-2 Big Ten) while Purdue moves to 26-21, 3-5.
After spotting Purdue a 1-0 lead in the opener, the Northwestern offense came to life. Sophomore Gretchen Barnes (Flossmoor, Ill.), who drove in five runs in game one against UIC on Wednesday, gave NU the lead with a two-run double in the second inning. Northwestern extended the lead in the third on the first of Erin Jancic's two triples. Another run in the third extended the lead to 4-1, and NU look poised to break things open in the fifth. A double by Jenn Shull (San Jose, Calif.) drove in two runs, and she came around on a single by Tami Jones (West Hills, Calif.) to make it 7-1. Purdue came back with four runs in its half of the fifth to close the deficit to 7-5, but the big seventh inning erased all thoughts of a come back. Jancic started the rally with her second triple. After Brooke Siebel (Brentwood, Tenn.) walked, a Boilermaker error on an attempted squeeze bunt plated Jancic with the first run. Jones followed with an RBI-single, and Barnes drove in a pair with a single of her own to make it 11-5. A bases loaded single by Jancic made it 13-5 before Siebel capped the inning in grand style, sending a pitch over the wall in left-center for a grand slam. Lauren Schwendimann (Tustin, Calif.) earned the win, pitching 6.2 innings to run her mark to 9-7 on the year.
The NU defense struggled in game two, as four unearned runs were enough to Purdue to get the win. After Purdue scored a pair in the top of the first, Northwestern responded in the second, turning three PU errors into two unearned runs of its own to knot the game at two. A disputed call on a play at the plate gave Purdue the lead in the fourth, and the Boilers added two insurance runs in the seventh to salvage a split.
Northwestern returns to action tomorrow (Saturday) when they visit Indiana for a single game beginning at 1 p.m.
