Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
Michigan State
NU Holds Off Michigan State, 3-2
5/8/2004 12:00:00 AM | Softball
May 8, 2004
EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Northwestern scored three runs in the first inning and freshman Eileen Canney made them stand in winning her 10th consecutive decision in a 3-2 Wildcat victory Saturday at Michigan State.
Canney struck out 10 Spartans in upping her record to 17-2, giving her an .895 winning percentage for the 2004 campaign. Northwestern improves to 31-16 overall, 12-7 in the Big Ten. Michigan State falls to 29-23 overall, 7-12 in the conference.
With the win, the Wildcats remain in fourth place in the Big Ten, one game behind Illinois.
The Wildcats wasted no time creating scoring opportunities -- and capitalizing on Spartan mistakes. Carri Leto and Erin Mobley both singled for the 'Cats to start the game. With her slugging reputation obviously preceding her, Garland Cooper was then handed an intentional base-on-balls to load the bags with no outs for NU.
Two Spartan errors and a Jessica Beech (23-14) wild pitch later, Northwestern had staked Canney to a 3-0 lead. With her single, Leto extended her team-best hitting streak to 12 games. Mobley finished the game 3-for-4, registering her seventh three-hit contest of the year.
Michigan State returned the bases-loaded trick in the bottom half of the frame, but Canney caught Brittney Green looking to escape unscathed. In the bottom of the second, MSU again put three runners on, and this time the Big Ten's leading batter Natalie Furrow delivered a two-run double to right center to cut NU's lead to 3-2.
The runs were only the third and fourth allowed in the second inning all season by the Wildcats. Northwestern has scored 32 runs in the frame over the course of the year.
Nothing but zeros showed up on the scoreboard for both squads over the rest of the game.
"Michigan State is the top batting team in the conference, so we knew they were going to get some hits," NU head coach Kate Drohan said. "We were able to control them by making the big plays when we needed to."
Leading off the top of the fourth for the 'Cats, leftfielder Jessica Miller launched a double over the head of her Spartan counterpart for her first collegiate base hit, but NU was unable to push across a run in the frame.
In the bottom of the seventh, Michigan State made a Spartan-esque attempt at a comeback. With two runners on and one out, Elizabeth Peterson hit a mammoth fly ball to the warning track in dead center, but Katie Logan tracked it down to record the second out of the inning. Canney was then able to coax a ground ball to second to secure the victory.
The Wildcats return to action at noon CDT tomorrow against Michigan State in their final regular season contest of the year.
