Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
Harvard
Softball Stays Alive with 9-6 Win over Harvard
5/19/2000 12:00:00 AM | Softball
May 19, 2000
NORMAN, OKLA. - Northwestern fell behind sixth-seeded Harvard, 4-0, before rallying for a wild 9-6 win in an elimination game at the NCAA Regional in Norman, Okla. Northwestern improves to 29-25 while Harvard finishes its season at 19-21.
Scoreless after two innings, Harvard opened the third with back-to-back home runs. They added two more to open up the big lead. The Wildcats responded immediately. Mikie Chambers (Country Club Hills, Ill.) drew a lead-off walk and advanced to third on a double by Erin Jancic (Houston, Texas). Brooke Siebel (Brentwood, Tenn.) followed with a triple off the centerfield fence to pull NU within two, 4-2. After a pop out, Jenn Shull (San Jose, Calif.) launched a pitch over the fence in left for her fourth home run of the season that tied the game, 4-4.
Harvard scratched out two runs in the fifth to retake the lead, but Northwestern maintained its poise and battled back in the bottom half of the inning. Jancic started the rally with a one-out walk. Siebel followed with a hard ground ball that was booted by the Harvard second baseman, sending Jancic to third. Siebel stole her first base of the season to put runners on second and third for Tami Jones (West Hills, Calif.). Jones followed with a sacrifice fly into leftfield to score Jancic, and Shull followed with a two-out single up the middle to score Siebel with the tying run. The Crimson went down in order in the sixth and NU put three runs on the board in the bottom of the inning to get the victory. Gretchen Barnes (Flossmoor, Ill.) opened the inning with a double to center. Rane Gunderson (Minnetonka, Minn.) laid down a beautiful sacrifice bunt and reached first when the throw was bobbled. Gunderson stole second before Brett Nakabayashi (Irvine, Calif.) lofted a sacrifice fly to left to score pinch-runner Stacey Austin (Cincinnati, Ohio) and advance Gunderson to third. Gunderson was caught in a rundown on Chambers' ground ball, but was able to pry the ball loose on the play at the plate to put the Cats ahead, 8-6. Chambers advanced all the way to third on the play and she came in to score on a throwing error on Jancic's grounder to short.
Brie Brown (Nashville, Tenn.) started and pitched the first 2.1 innings before giving way to Lauren Schwendimann (Tustin, Calif.). Schwendimann, who pitched all 10 innings in yesterday's loss to Oregon State, went the final 4.2 innings today, allowing two runs on five hits with seven strikeouts to improve to 19-11.
If Cal.-State Northridge defeats Oklahoma, Northwestern will face the Matadors. If OU wins, the Wildcats will face the loser of the Arkansas/Oregon State game. Regardless, the game will begin tomorrow at 2:30 p.m.
