Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
Eastern Michigan
Wildcats Open DeMarini Invite With 6-1 Win Over Eagles
3/19/2010 12:00:00 AM | Softball
March 19, 2010
COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Junior Jessica Smith (Encinitas, Calif./La Costa Canyon) tossed a three-hitter with a career-high seven strikeouts Friday afternoon against Eastern Michigan at the Missouri DeMarini Invitational, helping Northwestern to a 6-1 win over the Eagles.
Northwestern evens its record at 10-10 on the season with its win while Eastern Michigan falls to 6-10 on the year with its loss.
Emily Allard (Antioch, Calif./Deer Valley) led off the game with a four-pitch walk before moving to second on a sacrifice slap in the first-career plate appearance of freshman Kristin Scharkey (Yorba Linda, Calif./Esperanza). Adrienne Monka (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif./Rancho Cucamonga) and Michelle Batts (Bloomingdale, Ill./Glenbard North) followed with back-to-back walks of their own to load the bases.
Senior Emily Haug (Jefferson City, Mo./Helias) strode to the plate and laced a single into right field to score both Allard and Monka and give the Wildcats an early 2-0 lead after the first inning.
Northwestern put runners on base in the second and third, though no runs came of those situations. In the second, Allard drew a two-out walk before moving to third on Scharkey's first collegiate hit prior to the end of the inning. In the third, Batts took first on a base-on-balls, yielding the bag to pinch runner Aly Euler (River Forest, Ill./Oak Park River Forest), who advanced no further in the frame.
In the circle, Smith was doing well to keep Eastern Michigan off the base paths. She did not surrender the Eagle's first hit until there were two outs in the third inning and allowed only two runners through her first four frames of work.
Scharkey led off the top of the fifth with an infield single, then quickly swiped second and third base. One out later, Batts hit a slow roller to short for a groundout, but it allowed Scharkey to scamper home to extend Northwestern's lead to three, 3-0.
In the fifth and the sixth, Smith retired the side in order again to make it 10 Eagles set down in a row. She also fanned a pair in the fifth and one in the sixth to give her seven strikeouts, a career-high total for the junior.
The Wildcats added some insurance in the seventh inning. Robin Thompson (Detroit, Mich./Martin Luther King) led off with her third base hit of the game, then stole second and moved to third when the throw on the steal skipped into center. Allard followed with an infield hit on which Thompson was held at third, but the throw to first got away for an error to plate Thompson.
Allard quickly stole second and moved to third on Scharkey's third hit of the game. Back-to-back RBI groundouts by Monka and Batts scored Allard and Scharkey and made it 6-0 in favor of Northwestern.
Smith got the first out of the seventh to extend her consecutive outs streak to 11 before an EMU double and single plated a run to make the score 6-1. Smith then got a groundout before another single into right, but Scharkey gathered the ball and gunned the runner down at the plate to end the game.
Smith (4-2) allowed a first inning walk and a third inning single in the game, and that was it until the seventh frame. She topped her previous career high of five strikeouts with seven on Friday.
Scharkey and Thompson both were 3-for-3 at the plate to lead the Wildcats, with Scharkey stealing three bases and scoring twice. Allard crossed home twice while Batts and Haug each drove in a pair.
Northwestern returns to action at 7 p.m. CT tonight against Ball State.
