Northwestern
15-11
Fordham University
12-13
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Letourneau, Amy (8-8)
L: GILLEN, Rachel (8-6)
Batting:
HR: DAUBMAN, Michele 1 ; ORTIZ, Paige 1
RBI: DAUBMAN, Michele 1 ; ORTIZ, Paige 1
Base Running:
RUNS: DAUBMAN, Michele 1 ; ORTIZ, Paige 1
HBP: LOMBARDO, Kayla 1
Batting:
2B: Duehr, Olivia 1
HR: Letourneau, Amy 1 ; LeBeau, Brianna 1 ; Edwards, Anna 1
RBI: Letourneau, Amy 1 ; Kuhn, Julia 1 ; LeBeau, Brianna 4 ; Edwards, Anna 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Rabin, Sabrina 1 ; DiPrima, Andrea 1 ; Filler, Andrea 1 ; Letourneau, Amy 1 ; Kuhn, Julia 1 ; LeBeau, Brianna 1 ; Edwards, Anna 1
SB: Rabin, Sabrina 1 ; Boyd, Abbey 1
CS: Duehr, Olivia 1
Game Leaders
Players Mentioned
Big First Inning Leads #B1GCats Past Fordham, 7-2
3/24/2015 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Northwestern (15-11) concludes its Spring Break trip through Pennsylvania and New York with a 4-1 record after the victory. Fordham falls to 12-13 on the season after its loss. The game came immediately after the Wildcats dropped a tough 6-5, ten-inning contest against Hofstra.
Northwestern now heads home to open the Sharon J. Drysdale Field season March 27-29 against Wisconsin. Tickets -- including brand new 10-ticket flex plans -- are available now at NUsports.com.
Fordham got a leadoff single on the very first pitch from junior starter Amy Letourneau (Laguna Niguel, Calif./Santa Margarita Catholic), but the Wildcat hurler recovered to end the inning with no runs across helped by two strikeouts.
Northwestern then wasted little time going crazy at the plate. Sabrina Rabin (St. Charles, Ill./St. Charles North) led off with a single followed immediately by an Andrea DiPrima (Arlington Heights, Ill./Buffalo Grove) single and an Andrea Filler (Fort Wayne, Ind./Bishop Dwenger) single to load the bases.
One out later, Julia Kuhn (Middletown, N.J./Middletown South) dumped an RBI single into right to open the scoring before a big blow from Brianna LeBeau (Worth, Ill./H.L. Richards). The junior crushed a line drive to center than barely got 10 feet above the ground, but was hit so hard that it sailed over the fence for a grand slam and a 5-0 Northwestern lead. The home run was LeBeau's fifth of the season and the 16th of her career.
Anna Edwards (La Canada, Calif./La Canada) followed with a solo home run of her own to make it back-to-back jacks for Northwestern, extending the lead to 6-0. Sophomore Krista Williams (Pleasanton, Calif./Amador Valley) singled and Rabin singled again after the Edwards blast to make it an eight-hit inning for NU, but no further runs came across in the outburst.
In the bottom of the second, Letourneau -- one of just two Wildcats without a hit in the bottom of the first -- made up for it with a mammoth, soaring, patented Amy Letourneau home run over the scoreboard in centerfield to make NU's lead 7-0. The blast was her sixth of the season and the 28th of her career.
Letourneau in the circle, meanwhile, was equally as devastating. While Fordham was able to get base runners in each of the first three innings, Letourneau came back with strikeouts including whiffing the side in the third to reach six Ks in the game. Though NU did not score in the third, Olivia Duehr (Antioch, Ill./Antioch) hit a double in the frame to give every single Wildcats starter a base hit through the first three innings of play.
Fordham did get on the board in the top of the fourth with two solo home runs to make it a 7-2 game, then the Rams replaced their starting pitcher Rachel Gillen with Michele Daubman to begin the bottom half. Daubman issued a leadoff walk in the frame to DiPrima, who gave way to pinch runner Fran Strub (Coralville, Iowa/Clear Creek Amana). Filler followed with a single to left before things got weird.
Letourneau hit a pop-up to the shortstop and the home plate umpire signaled for the infield fly rule. The shortstop dropped it, however, booting it toward second where the second baseman picked it up and stepped on the bag. The umpire in the field called Filler out on the force, leaving Letourneau safe at first base with a fielder's choice. The play was representative of the rest of the inning, which had Strub thrown out at the plate on a grounder before LeBeau smashed a ball at the first-baseman for a lineout.
Letourneau fanned the side again in the top of the sixth to reach 10 Ks in the game, then Fordham brought its third pitcher of the contest in for the bottom half. Rabin greeted her with a single and a steal before moving to third when DiPrima beat out an infield single of her own. From there the new hurler Patti Maloney retired NU in order to keep it a five-run game.
Letourneau locked things down in the seventh to complete the victory, allowing two runs on six hits and three walks with a season-high 11 strikeouts to even her record on the year at 8-8.
Rabin led Northwestern with a three-hit ballgame at the plate while DiPrima, Filler and Edwards all had two hits each. LeBeau led the RBI column with four courtesy of her grand slam. Though she had two hits in the game, Filler did not drive in a run for the first time in nine games.
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