Northwestern
Penn State
Eileen Canney One-Hit Shutout Baffles Penn State, 2-0
4/15/2007 12:00:00 AM | Softball
April 15, 2007
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Senior Eileen Canney (Paradise, Calif./Paradise) carried a no-hitter through 6.1 innings Sunday during the first game of a doubleheader against Penn State at Sharon J. Drysdale Field, earning her 34th-career shutout with a one-hit, 2-0 victory for the seventh-ranked Wildcats over the Nittany Lions.
Northwestern improves to 33-8 overall with the win, 8-2 in the Big Ten. Penn State, playing its first conference games since March, fell to 18-13 overall with the loss, 2-1 in the Big Ten.
Canney was fantastic throughout the contest, and got some great defensive help to maintain her no-hit bid until the seventh. In the bottom of the sixth inning with two outs, Penn State laid down a bunt and Darcy Sengewald (Frankfort, Ill./Lincoln Way East) dove to glove it, then from her knees she threw out the runner.
Canney improved to 18-8 with the win, allowing the one hit and two walks to go along with 11 strikeouts.
Senior Katie Logan (Tempe, Ariz./Corona del Sol) led off the bottom of the first with a double down the left-field line on the first pitch she saw. One out later, senior Garland Cooper (Mission Viejo, Calif./Santa Margarita Catholic) crushed a one-hopper to second that ate up the fielder and bounded into right field for a single to score Logan from second and give NU a 1-0 lead. Cooper was thrown out on the play trying to advance to second on the throw home.
The Wildcats threatened several other times during the middle innings, but did not push across any runs. Sengewald reached third after a fielder's choice ball, an error and a wild pitch in the third, but was unable to reach home plate in the frame.
In the bottom of the fourth, Cooper led off with a walk, then was replaced by pinch runner Aly Euler (River Forest, Ill./Oak Park River Forest). After Euler was eliminated from the base paths on a runner left early call, freshman Nicole Pauly (Palatine, Ill./Palatine) drew a walk, then advanced to second when sophomore Erin Dyer (Homer Glen, Ill./Lockport) was hit by a pitch. Penn State starter Ashley Esparza (8-7) was able to get a pair of strikeouts to end the inning, however, with no runs scored.
In the bottom of the fifth, Logan crushed a two-out triple into the gap in right field, but again no runs would come of the situation.
Northwestern broke through for its second run of the game in the sixth inning. With one out, Pauly uncorked a solo home run high off the Welsh-Ryan Arena wall in left-center field to give the 'Cats a 2-0 lead.
The home run was Pauly's sixth of the season and the team's 57th of the year, breaking the team single-season record of 56 set in 2005.
Penn State finally broke up Canney's no-hitter with one out in the sixth inning when a slow dribbler up the middle from Danielle Kinley was backhanded by Pauly at second, who then wheeled and fired to first. A stretching Cooper gloved the ball just barely after Kinley reached the bag for an infield single.
Canney responded to the base knock by striking out the final two Penn State batters to end the game.
Logan finished the game 2-for-3 with a double, a triple and a run scored for NU.
