Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
Texas State
Northwestern Falls in NCAA Opener, 8-0 (5)
5/15/2009 12:00:00 AM | Softball
May 15, 2009
Box Score
WACO, Texas -- Texas State took advantage of several Wildcat miscues Friday evening in the opening game of the NCAA Waco Regional, defeating Northwestern, 8-0, in five innings.
Northwestern now is 31-14 overall on the year while Texas State improves to 40-16 with its win. NU will meet Louisiana-Lafayette, which lost to Baylor in its first-round game, at 4 p.m. CT tomorrow, Saturday, May 16 in an elimination game.
Texas State scored the first run of the Waco Regional with a two-out, bases-loaded fielder's choice ball hit deep into the hole at short, but starter Lauren Delaney (Jefferson City, Mo./Helias) was able to limit the damage to a single run on no base hits, fanning a pair in the frame.
With one out in the bottom of the first, senior Tammy Williams (Roscoe, Mo./Osceola) crushed a pitch off the top of the wall in left field for a double. One out later, Michelle Batts (Bloomingdale, Ill./Glenbard North) drew a walk and Nicole Pauly (Palatine, Ill./Palatine) was hit by a pitch to load the bases, but the frame ended there with the Bobcats on top, 1-0.
Texas State pushed its lead to 7-0 after a six-run fourth, recording two singles for its first hits of the game and taking advantage of a trio of NU errors to push across five unearned runs. In the fifth, the Bobcats scored one more on a two-out single, with a Jordan Wheeler (Garden Grove, Calif./Los Alamitos) throw from left to the plate erasing the trailing runner to end the inning.
Sophomore Kelly Quinn (Northbrook, Ill./Glenbrook North) opened the bottom of the fifth with a liner destined for center, but a diving second baseman left the ground and achieved full extension to glove it for out number one. Wheeler followed with a hard grounder to the hole in short where the fielder backhanded it and threw from her knees to get Wheeler by a quarter-step for the second out.
Pinch hitter Emily Haug (Jefferson City, Mo./Helias) drew a full-count walk, then Robin Thompson (Detroit, Mich./Martin Luther King) re-entered to run, but no further offense came in the game.
Delaney (29-11) took the loss, allowing eight runs (three earned) on four hits with four strikeouts.
