Friday, February 19
Chapel Hill, NC
4 p.m. CT/5 p.m. ET
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Photo by: Stephen J. Carrera
North Carolina Comes Back, Walks Off on Northwestern, 5-2
2/19/2016 7:04:00 PM | Softball
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Northwestern senior Amy Letourneau took a no-hitter into the sixth inning of NU's Big Ten/ACC Challenge opener Friday against North Carolina at Anderson Stadium, but the Tar Heels came back with three home runs in the final two frames to walk off on the Wildcats, 5-2.
NU now is 3-3 on the season with the loss while North Carolina improves to 3-4 with its win. The Big Ten/ACC Challenge continues tomorrow, Saturday, Feb. 20, with Northwestern facing Boston College at 9:30 a.m. CT/10:30 a.m. ET and North Carolina once again at 2:30 p.m. CT/3:30 p.m. ET.
Northwestern stranded 10 runners on base in the game and saw two more thrown out at the plate. The Wildcats also threw out a Tar Heel at home in the first inning of the contest.
Senior Fran Strub prevented North Carolina from taking an early lead in the bottom of the first inning Friday. With a pair of two-out walks aboard, a ball got into right field on an error and Strub was able to corral it and fire all the way in to Sammy Nettling at the plate for an out at home to end the inning.
Northwestern cobbled together a two-out rally of its own in the top of the second when Alcy Bush walked followed by Brooke Marquez and Krista Williams singles to load the bases. North Carolina hurler Kendra Lynch was able to get an out on the very next pitch to keep the game scoreless.
Letourneau thwarted a UNC threat herself in the bottom of the second. With runners at second and third and two outs, Letourneau got a swinging strikeout on a full count to end the inning.
Both hurlers had much easier third innings with Letourneau mowing down the 2-3-4 hitters for the Tar Heels on just seven pitches. NU had a good rally in the fourth, but finally broke through for runs in the fifth.
Sophomore Sabrina Rabin led off the inning with a bunt single, then swiped second base. Freshman Morgan Nelson joined her on base via a well-earned 10-pitch walk. Andrea Filler then smoked a ball into right field, but North Carolina was able to put together a perfect relay train to put Rabin out at the plate. Still, Nelson ended up at third, Filler at second and the fun soon began.
Letourneau brought Nelson to the plate with what amounted to an RBI fielder's choice ball to put the Wildcats on the board. After Abbey Boyd came in to run for Letourneau, Nettling cracked a double to left to plate Filler and make it 2-0. North Carolina elected to change pitchers at that point, lifting Lynch in favor of Sydney Matzko. A later grounder to short resulted in Boyd being out at the plate, helping to limit NU's rally to just the pair of scores.
Letourneau's sixth strikeout of the game stranded a runner at second in the bottom of the fifth, but North Carolina was finally able to get a hit -- and a run -- on the board with a leadoff home run in the bottom of the sixth inning, cutting Northwestern's lead to 2-1. Letourneau responded to the blast by striking out the side to reach nine Ks in the game and keep the Wildcats on top heading to the seventh inning.
Filler led off the top of the seventh with a double, but ended up stuck on that bag when the frame ended. That turned out to be huge when North Carolina again started the bottom half with a solo home run, tying the score, 2-2. Two outs later, with two runners on, the Tar Heels walked off with a three-run homer.
Letourneau (2-2) took the loss, going 6.2 innings and giving up five runs on four hits and five walks with 10 strikeouts.
Filler was 2-for-4 for NU at the plate with two doubles while Nettling also had two hits including one double.
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Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Sydney Matzko (1-1)
L: Letourneau, Amy (2-2)
Batting:
2B: Filler, Andrea 2 ; Nettling, Sammy 1
RBI: Letourneau, Amy 1 ; Nettling, Sammy 1
SH: Bush, Alcy 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Nelson, Morgan 1 ; Filler, Andrea 1
SB: Rabin, Sabrina 2
PO: Nelson, Morgan 1
Batting:
HR: Kristen Brown 1 ; Lauren Fuller 1 ; Berlynne Delamora 1
RBI: Kristen Brown 1 ; Lauren Fuller 3 ; Berlynne Delamora 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Aquilla Mateen 1 ; Kristen Brown 2 ; Lauren Fuller 1 ; Berlynne Delamora 1
SB: Kristen Brown 1 ; Kiana Sherlund 1
HBP: Berlynne Delamora 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
4
R
0
H
2
RBI
0
AB
4
R
1
H
2
RBI
0
AB
4
R
0
H
2
RBI
1
AB
3
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
OF
/ Softball
IF
/ Softball
P/1B
/ SoftballIF
/ Softball
IF/C
/ SoftballC
/ SoftballOF
/ Softball
OF
/ Softball
OF
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