Northwestern
26-19, 13-7
University of Iowa
16-38, 7-14
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Wood, Kristen (15-8)
L: Starkenburg, Shayla (14-22)
Batting:
HR: Kuhn, Julia 1
RBI: Kuhn, Julia 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Kuhn, Julia 1
SB: Rabin, Sabrina 1 ; Williams, Krista 1
Batting:
2B: Fritsch, Claire 1 ; Mullarkey, Kaitlyn 1
3B: Pratt, Cheyenne 1
Base Running:
SB: Pratt, Cheyenne 1
HBP: Fritsch, Claire 1
Game Leaders
Players Mentioned
Wildcats Win Throwback 1-0 Decision Over Hawkeyes
5/1/2015 12:00:00 AM | Softball
IOWA CITY, Iowa -- Iowa staged an 80s Night promotion Friday at Bob Pearl Field, and the Wildcats and Hawkeyes obliged with a throwback 1-0 contest won by Northwestern on a Julia Kuhn (Middletown, N.J./Middletown South) solo home run and a Kristen Wood (Trevor, Wis./Wilmot Union) five-hit shutout.
Northwestern (26-19, 13-7 Big Ten) and Iowa (16-38, 7-14 Big Ten) play game two of this three-game series at 2 p.m. CT tomorrow, Saturday, May 2.
Wood (15-8) scattered base runners to the tune of five hits and four walks, striking out eight in the contest. Iowa threatened throughout the game, but Wood was successful in stranding runners in scoring position in five different innings. Wood's shutout is the eighth of her career, and the first in which she allowed more than two hits -- entering Friday, Wood had tossed two two-hitters, two one-hitters and three no-hitters for clean slates.
Both pitchers breezed through the first two innings of this game -- including a six-pitch 1-2-3 inning for Wood in the second. In the top of the third, Brianna LeBeau (Worth, Ill./H.L. Richards) and Sabrina Rabin (St. Charles, Ill./St. Charles North) each drew one-out walks before Iowa's ace Shayla Starkenburg was able to get a deep fly out and a groundout to escape.
Iowa put together a threat in the bottom of the third with a one-out double before NU issued a walk with first base open. Wood then fought her way through several long foul balls to notch her fifth strikeout of the game, sending the contest scoreless into the fourth.
Kuhn, who just missed a home run deep to center in her first at-bat of the game, got the whole enchilada in her second. With one out in the top of the fourth, Kuhn smashed a soaring, no-doubt home run to left center to give Northwestern a 1-0 edge on her fifth home run of the season.
Iowa tried to answer in the bottom of the fourth with a leadoff double, but once again Wood bore down and did not allow that runner to advance any farther. It was then the Hawkeyes turn to strand a runner in the top of the fifth after Rabin singled and stole second. She would get to third with one out before a tremendous play by the Iowa shortstop against her counterpart Andrea Filler (Fort Wayne, Ind./Bishop Dwenger) helped keep Rabin from crossing the plate.
Iowa put together its biggest threat yet in the bottom of the fifth, getting two on with no outs on a single and a walk. After a fielder's choice grounder to Anna Edwards (La Canada, Calif./La Canada) erased the lead runner, the next batter hit a line drive toward first. Kuhn dove forward and gloved it, quickly scrambled to her feet and stepped on first for an unassisted, inning-ending double play.
Northwestern mounted a big rally in the top of the sixth in an attempt to cushion its lead. Kuhn led off with a single for her second hit of the game, giving way to pinch runner Krista Williams (Pleasanton, Calif./Amador Valley), who stole second base. Olivia Duehr (Antioch, Ill./Antioch) hit a comebacker that resulted in Williams in a rundown between second and third, but the Houdini somehow escaped safely to second base. With two outs and those runners at second and third, LeBeau walked for the second time in the game to load the bases. Rabin then put a ball in play sharply to short, where -- for the second time in the game -- the Iowa fielder made a great play, gloving it deep in the hole and using her momentum to outrace Duehr to third for an inning-ending force.
After Northwestern erased yet another leadoff Iowa base runner in the bottom of the sixth with a 6-4-3 double play, Iowa was able to get NU's 2-3-4 batters to go down 1-2-3 in the top of the seventh. Wood got through the first two batters of the Iowa half of the seventh before a two-out triple turned the lineup over. The next Hawkeye was grazed by a pitch before Wood battled through a lengthy at-bat and multiple foul balls to get a swinging K to end the game.
Kuhn collected two hits for NU in the game while Duehr reached base twice on a single and a walk and LeBeau walked twice.
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