Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
UC Santa Barbara
Wildcats Unseat Gauchos, 8-1
5/20/2004 12:00:00 AM | Softball
May 20, 2004
TUCSON, Ariz. -- Third-seeded Northwestern wasted no time announcing its presence Thursday at the NCAA Tournament's toughest regional, defeating No. 6-seed UC Santa Barbara 8-1 in the Arizona Regional's first game.
With the win, NU improves to 14-13 all-time in the NCAA Tournament and 33-18 overall this season. The victory marks the second year in a row the Wildcats have won their first regional game -- they defeated Tennessee Tech 2-1 to open the Austin, Texas, regional last season.
Next up for the Wildcats is 20th-ranked Oklahoma (41-19-1), a 5-0 winner over Temple on Thursday. That game is set for 1:30 p.m. CDT on Friday. The Sooners, who have won 17 consecutive games in NCAA regional play, are seeking a fifth straight appearance in the College World Series.
In the bottom of the first, Northwestern's best 1-2 punch in the program's history wasted no time introducing themselves to the NCAA Tournament. With two outs, freshman Garland Cooper lined a single down the right field line, then scored all the way from first on a Kristen Amegin double to the left field gap to give NU a 1-0 lead.
This came after starter Courtnay Foster (15-14) struck out Lindsey Herron with runners on second and third to end the top of the first.
"Getting out of that first inning was huge," NU head coach Kate Drohan said. "Courtnay made some big pitches in clutch situations today. I was very pleased with how she pitched."
Foster went the distance, allowing four hits and one unearned run while striking out six.
In the top of the third, UCSB (32-30) knotted the score at 1-1 after a pair of walks loaded the bases and Brittany Putich hit a sharp ground ball to third that was too hot to handle, allowing a run to plate on the error.
NU struck right back in the bottom half of the inning. Amegin walked and Eryn Manahan reached on a fielder's choice before senior J.C. Kira doubled off the left field wall to drive in both runs and give the Wildcats the lead back, 3-1.
Northwestern poured on the offense from there. Singles by Katie Logan, Carri Leto, Erin Mobley and Amegin together with an RBI, bases-loaded walk by Cooper led to three Wildcat runs in the fourth to extend the lead to 6-1.
Leto extended her team-best hitting streak to 16 games in a 2-for-4 performance at the plate. Logan also recorded two hits in the contest.
Mobley and Cooper would add back-to-back home runs to lead off the sixth inning for Northwestern - the third official time NU has hit back-to-back home runs this season and the first time it was accomplished by 'Cats other than Manahan and Amegin.
"We did a nice job swinging at our pitches today," Drohan said. "We really kept the pressure on them."
Jennifer Davis started the game for UCSB and took the loss, dropping her record to 16-16. She gave up six runs on eight hits over three-plus innings of work.
Cooper finished the game 2-for-2 with two RBIs, runs and walks. She reached base in all four of her plate appearances. Her home run was the 11th of the season, extending even farther her own NU single-season record. She now has 99 total bases on the season, breaking teammate Mobley's school record of 98 set last year.
Mobley went 2-for-4 in the contest with an RBI and two runs scored while Amegin finished 2-for-3 with a pair of RBIs and a walk.
