Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
UC-Santa Barbara (SDSU Tournament)
Softball Splits in Opening Day of San Diego Tournament
2/15/2002 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Feb. 15, 2002
Game 1 Box Score | Game 2 Box Score
SAN DIEGO - Tradition says that one can play a fastpitch softball game in approximately 90 minutes, but with almost half the Northwestern softball squad playing in front of a homestate crowd they decided to give the fans more than their money's worth. The Wildcats began play at 10:30 a.m. Friday morning. Two games, 15 innings and six hours later they emerged from the third base dugout with a 10-9 victory over Santa Barbara and an 11-10 extra inning loss to Utah State.
In game one of the Campbell/Cartier Tournament, NU jumped out to an 8-0 lead, scoring four runs in the first and second innings. UCSB got on the board in the third, then edged closer with five runs in the fifth. The `Cats extended their lead to 10-6 on Cindy Muran's pinch-hit two RBI single in the bottom of the sixth.
The Gauchos gave it one last try, scoring three in the top half of the seventh to get within one. Then with runners on second and third, right-hander Brie Brown in on relief, threw the ball past her catcher. J.C. Kira alertly retrieved the wild pitch and tossed the ball to Brown. Brown applied the tag to a sliding UCSB player at homeplate to record the final out of the game and save the `Cats one run lead.
The first game lasted over two and half hours, which proved to be minuscule as their next game, which started 20 minutes after the completion of the UCSB game, lasted three hours and 25 minutes.
Against Utah State, NU again took an early 8-1 lead before letting the Aggies climb back into contention with five runs in the fourth and two in the fifth.
Erin Jancic stepped to the plate in the top of the sixth and broke the 8-8 tie with her first home run of the year barely clearing the right field fence. Kira then doubled in Muran to put NU ahead by two.
The Aggies were not done yet, they clawed back with runs in the sixth and seventh. Then after three and a half hours, a bases load walk by NU in the eighth gave USU the 11-10 win.
For the day, the `Cats platted 28 hits and scored 20 runs, but also gave up 20 runs on 19 hits and committed five errors in the field.
Offensively, NU remains hot all around the order. Gretchen Barnes led the attack, going 6-for-8 with three RBI and three runs scored. Brett Nakabayashi also contributed five hits and five runs on the day.
Saturday, NU faces Cal State Fullerton and Sacramento State. Then wrap up the tournament against host San Diego State on Sunday.
