Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
Albany (NCAA Regional)
Wildcats Tame Great Danes, 6-1
5/20/2005 12:00:00 AM | Softball
May 20, 2005
Box Score
SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- No. 9 seed Northwestern opened its NCAA Tournament with a bang, rapping out 12 hits and racing past the University at Albany, 6-1, Friday afternoon in the second game of the Ninth Regional at Ivy Field.
Northwestern's overall record improves to 39-15 with the win, while the Great Danes fall to 35-13. NU is now 16-15 all-time in the NCAA Tournament. The game was Albany's first appearance in the event.
Northwestern is now 7-1 in NCAA Tournament-opening games, having won the last three in a row. Last season, NU also jumped all over its first opponent, defeating UC Santa Barbara, 8-1.
Albany opened the scoring in the top of the third inning. After a one-out single to left field and a stolen base, Amber Maisonet hit a two-out jam shot toward shortstop. The wind blowing in hard from right field killed the ball and dropped it into shallow left field before freshman shortstop Stephanie Churchwell (Lake Forest, Calif./El Toro) could spin into position for the catch. The runner was going on contact and scored to give the Great Danes a 1-0 lead.
Northwestern struck right back in the bottom half of the inning, sending nine batters to plate. Freshman Darcy Sengewald (Frankfort, Ill./Lincoln Way East) led off with an infield single to third. Sophomore Katie Logan (Tempe, Ariz./Corona del Sol) then laced a 1-2 pitch into the left-center field gap for an RBI triple to tie the score, 1-1.
The triple was the first of Logan's career; she previously had just three extra-base hits -- all doubles.
With one out, senior Erin Mobley (Santa Ana, Calif./Foothill) pushed a single into left to plate Logan and give Northwestern its first lead of the game, 2-1. Mobley stole second in the middle of a four-pitch walk to sophomore Garland Cooper (Mission Viejo, Calif./Santa Margarita Catholic). Cooper had nearly taken Albany starter Amanda Morin's head off with a line-shot single to center in the first inning.
With two outs in the inning, junior Kristen Amegin (Sacramento, Calif./Elk Grove) singled to a diving shortstop to load the bases before junior Sheila McCorkle (Costa Mesa, Calif./Mater Dei) singled through the left side to extend NU's advantage to 3-1.
The Wildcats applied more pressure to the offensive gas pedal in the fourth. Logan hit a one-out single to short, then scored when Churchwell doubled off the very top of the left-field wall to push the NU lead to three, 4-1.
With the bases loaded thanks to bases on balls drawn by Cooper and junior Jamie Dotson (Santa Ana, Calif./Foothill), Amegin hit a double to the wall in right field to score Churchwell and Cooper and give the Wildcats a 6-1 lead.
The double chased Morin (16-3) from the game; Casey Halloran replaced her. Morin entered the game with a 0.74 ERA and only 16 earned runs to her name. Northwestern touched her up for six.
Eight of Northwestern's nine starters recorded base hits in the game.
Junior Courtnay Foster (Tucson, Ariz./Sahuaro) started and finished the game in the circle for the Wildcats, allowing just one run on four hits with 10 strikeouts. The win improved her to 20-7 on the year, the first time she has cracked the 20-win plateau in her career.
Foster is now 3-1 all-time in the NCAA Tournament. Her previous two victories were also complete game, one-run efforts. Her 10 strikeouts set a single-game high for Foster in the NCAA Tournament; her previous best was eight set in 2003 in a 2-1 win against Tennessee Tech.
Amegin's two RBIs gave her 91 for her career, tying her with Brooke Siebel for third place all-time at NU. Mobley's single gave her an even 300 total bases for her career; she already holds the Northwestern record in the category.
Churchwell's hits were her 80th and 81st hits of the season -- she broke the NU single-season record for hits with her 69th of the year way back on April 30 against Michigan State.
In the first game of the Regional, host Notre Dame scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth for a 3-2, come-from-behind victory over Louisville.
Northwestern will face the Irish at noon CT tomorrow (Saturday, May 21). Louisville will play Albany at 2:30 p.m. CT in the loser's bracket, with the loser's bracket final scheduled for 5 p.m. CT Saturday evening.
