Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
Cal State Fullerton
Cal State Fullerton Takes Pair From NU
3/24/2004 12:00:00 AM | Softball
March 24, 2004
FULLERTON, Calif. -- Perhaps the long spring break trip is catching up on Northwestern. Perhaps the airline lost NU's lumber during the flight from Hawaii. Whatever the reason, the 'Cats bats went silent Wednesday in Fullerton, Calif., as Cal State Fullerton swept NU in a double-dip by a pair of 2-1 scores.
Northwestern managed only three hits in the first contest and five in the second. Only one of the eight hits, a Kristen Amegin double in the nightcap, went for extra bases.
In the first game, the Titans (10-19) used one of freshman pitcher Brooke Weekley's best performances of her career to down NU.
Weekley, who improved her record to 6-8 with the complete-game win, baffled the Wildcats (14-7), allowing only a single unearned run on three hits while striking out six.
Down 2-0 in the top of the sixth inning, the Wildcats mounted a late-game surge, but fell short. Sheila McCorkle walked and advanced to second on a Carri Leto single to center. Erin Mobley laid down a sacrifice bunt, her second in the game, to move the baserunners to second and third with only one out. Garland Cooper then reached on an error by the Fullerton shortstop, scoring McCorkle, but Leto was thrown out at third on the play. With Cooper on first, Eryn Manahan popped out to short, ending the Northwestern rally prematurely.
Leto recorded two of the Wildcats' three hits in the game.
NU starter Courtnay Foster (7-5) matched Weekley zero for zero through the first three frames, but the Titans' Tiffany Hoff sent an inside offering out of the park just inside the left-field pole in the bottom of the fourth to stake Fullerton to the 2-0 advantage Northwestern could not overcome.
"We didn't come to play in the first game," NU head coach Kate Drohan said. "Courtnay did a good job keeping us in the game, but we just didn't get the job done at the plate."
In the second game, the lack of a timely hit in RBI situations late in the contest again proved to be the Wildcats' undoing.
Northwestern had great chances to score in the fifth and seventh innings in particular, but could not cash in. In the fifth, the Titans committed an error, two Wildcats walked and Elizabeth Piatt, Jenny Glonke and J.C. Kira all stole bases for NU, which couldn't force a run across. Piatt came the closest to reaching the plate, being snuffed out at home on a fielder's choice. In the seventh, Mobley collected her third single of the game to load the bases with two out, but Cooper got jammed by a pitch and popped up harmlessly to second. The Wildcats left nine runners stranded in the game.
"In one inning we had three steals, two walks and an error and we couldn't score," Drohan said. "We need to do a better job converting our opportunities."
In the sixth, the 'Cats converted. Down 1-0, NU began their second consecutive inning with two runners on and no outs, this time after back-to-back singles by McCorkle and Mobley. After loading the bases on an error, Amegin launched a deep sacrifice fly to center allowing McCorkle to race home and knot the score at 1-1 with the only run NU would score.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Titans remembered. With Jenna Wheeler on third and only one out, NU allowed the next two batters to reach on infield grounders while making sure Wheeler stayed put. With the bases juiced, Fullerton's Lindsey Bashor fisted a ball over second base that Leto was unable to pull in with a full-extension dive, and Wheeler came home to win the game for Cal State Fullerton.
Eileen Canney (7-2) took the loss after striking out six but allowing seven hits and surrendering three walks in six and a third innings, while the Titan's Candice Baker (4-11) earned just her fourth win of the season.
